GT Revised: Cataclysm
by Kaboom Krusader
Summary: A complete side-story stemming from my ongoing DragonBall GT: Revised! Read the story behind the Black Star Dragon Balls, the people around them, and their role in a great, world-changing crisis! Rated T for language, violence, and mild suggestiveness.
1. Little Green Men

_600 YEARS AGO..._

The guy next to him smelled like fish.

Zunim was starting to lose his patience AND his appetite. Being a Saiyan, that second thing said a lot about his situation. First of all, he didn't see why his crew had picked HIM to come to this stupid meeting. Yeah, he was their leader, and yes, this ore they were going after was valuable, but still. Kale and Pinach were the smart ones who actually cared about this stuff. Why didn't one of THEM come to deal with the negotiation B.S.? Zunim just wanted to be fighting.

But whatever. The money they'd make off swiping this stuff would keep them all very, very comfortable for a very, very long time. Even Zunim knew that if he wanted the cut for him and his crew, he'd have to do something for once besides killing things. Though, if this dragged on much longer, he might end up doing that anyway.

"They're MY ships," demanded one of the other bosses, a large reptilian-looking alien with four eyes and a beak-like nose. "Without them you'd have no way to even get the stuff off the planet. I demand at least forty percent!"

"You'll get your cut at all, much less forty percent, when you show you're reliable," came the reply from another boss. This one was some sort of semi-humanoid being, with spiky growths on his arms and no visible nose, which made him speak in a nasally tone. "We've all heard about that last operation of yours on Plant. You didn't even get halfway through their system before they caught you, and you were forced to dump your cargo and run."

"The only mistake we made was taking that job in the first place," the first argued. "_Nobody _can pull one on the Tsufrians. They're too devious."

"Our point exactly," another boss put in. "How can we be sure that wasn't just the first link in a long chain of your stupid decisions?"

"Yeah, how do we know you won't turn your tail, drop your cargo and run again?"

"There'll be no need," Zunim butted in. "Because you've got _us_." He indicated himself. "My crew and I are Saiyans, one of the toughest races in the Universe. You won't find any better muscle around, aside from those snotty Icelings." He smirked and waved his hand around above his head. "Besides," he chortled. "These Namekians... They're pacifists. They just farm and let other races mine and wheel n' deal on their planet. Total pushovers. If they DO happen to catch us, I and the rest of my crew can just plow through them, no sweat."

"I don't know," another member, donned in a hooded robe and a mechanical mask, spoke for the first time. "I've heard stories about their Warrior Clan. It might be a problem if we were to have a run-in with them."

"Oh, what?" The lizard boss laughed. "They might attack us with shovels? Oh, or poke us to death with those antennae of theirs!"

This brought about a quick round of laughter from the room's occupants. Under his mask, the cautious one simply grinned.

"Anyway," 'Spike-arm,' the brains behind the operation, continued. "Here's the place we're meeting." He produced and tossed several data sheets with maps and written details onto the table. "The mine itself isn't the target. Rather, it's a large storage facility where the raw ore is stored before it's shipped off for refinement."

He leaned forward and indicated a certain spot on his sheet. "Our contact is a Rugthian worker named Leich. He operates the vehicle for transporting the ore and is one of the last ones at the facility every day. He'll be there to show us to it when we hit the place tomorrow night, in return for fifteen percent of the profit." He pointed to another spot. "We'll 'steal' one of his transports, and use it to bring _at least_ two hundred standard tons of ore to ol' Tsufrian-target's ships, located at these coordinates." He ignored Lizard's glare and concluded. "Overall, it's a pretty simple job, but it has to be followed to the letter if it's gonna work. Any questions?"

"None," was the general response from all present.

"Excellent," remarked the masked one. "We'll make sure to mark these coordinates."

"What, of my ships? How come?"

"Why, to impound them and arrest you, of course," he said. He confidently reached up and removed his mask, revealing a muscular, green, eyebrow-less, and distinctly antennae-adorned face beneath. He grinned devilishly. "In the unlikely event any of you manage to escape from here."

"A Namek mole!" Spike-arm exclaimed, to inform any of those who hadn't realized it yet. Which was, in actuality, about a good half of them. "Blast him!"

All hands, tentacles, and other unidentified appendages in the room reached out, charged ki, and took aim at the Namekian as he jumped up towards the ceiling. They all fired, yet the dozen different ki blasts managed to shred nothing more than the now-empty cloak. The tall, bulky Namekian suddenly appeared behind 'Spike-arm', who turned around just in time to receive a high-powered fist to the face what sent him flying backwards. He struck his head on the far wall, and slumped down to the ground, unconscious and possibly dead.

"Get him!" 'Lizard' barked, and Zunim was more than inclined to oblige. _Time to show this green freak just who he's messing with._ He charged, making sure the Namekian would see him coming. The Namekian adjusted his stance to counter his assault, but at the last second, Zunim sidestepped at speeds impossible for anyone else in the room, bringing himself behind the Namekian, while also leaving an after-image, which the Namekian's punch sailed right through.

_ Gotcha_, Zunim thought to himself, and swung his leg around straight towards the back of the Namekian's head.

The Namekian caught it with the same hand.

"What?" Zunim was in shock. How fast did he just move? Using the same arm he'd punched at the after-image with? To do that, he'd have to be _leagues_ ahead of Zunim in speed, power, and skill.

Zunim watched in horror as four more Namekian warriors burst in through the door, and the one who had him in his clutches tightened his grip. The last thought running through Zunim's head before he was thrown against the wall was, "This won't end well."

* * *

A few short minutes later, the beatdown was over and cleanup began. The lead Namekian examined the smugglers' plans more carefully, as the other warriors under his command began restraining and moving out those who remained. A few had managed to escape, including that idiotic Saiyan who had charged him. But it would be fairly easy to track them down, since they now had details of their plans, and the members of the other gangs they'd captured would surely be willing to 'rat them out', as it were — at least, with a little convincing. He motioned to one of the other warriors and handed him the documents.

"Find and impound their ships," he ordered. "Arrest any present gang members, and have someone track down and arrest their Rugthian contact, as well."

"Yes, sir," the lower-ranked warrior complied, taking the documents and heading off.

The Namekian warrior known as Slug once again looked around at the wrecked hideout and grinned in self-satisfaction. It was shaping up to be a rewarding day.

**DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM  
**

By Kaboom Krusader

Chapter One _- "Little Green Men"_

It was a crisp, cool autumn afternoon. Namek's third sun had finished setting, as the second began to rise to join the first just over the horizon. Together they illuminated the city's peaks with a golden luminescence. Small crafts began to buzz about less frequently, signaling the winding down of the day. Of course, with three suns constantly surrounding it, Namek didn't technically have a "night," rather just certain points of the day that were slightly brighter or darker than others. Regardless, the view of the city was majestic nearly 24-7.

Such pristine sightseeing opportunities were perhaps the greatest highlights of Bosa's day. He made it a daily priority to visit the balcony of his chamber at least once to soak in the sights - Surely a convenient privilege of being one of Namek's three ruling elders.

Bosa closed his eyes and took in a great sigh, the motions of which were barely visible on his plump frame. He stood still and cleared his mind, allowing the brisk breeze to waft over him. He would need a level head later today, as he had some very important business to oversee. A mining organization wanted access to a large portion of Namek's second moon for the valuable ore it contained, and they claimed to have already purchased the rights to it. Unfortunately, a group of Ardrian scientists were already quite situated in that area, and had been running some very beneficial, and so far successful, terraforming experiments for several years.

As head of the Seer Clan, diplomacy was Bosa's forte, and heading up negotiations during such situations was more than routine for him. It was practically second nature. Normally a lower level Seer would supervise something like this, but the size and potential impact of this case in particular required the attention of Bosa himself. Despite the scale, however, this would be a relatively simple ordeal to work out: Just a matter of appropriately dividing up the 'real estate', as it were.

He took one last glance at the cityscape before turning to leave. But he purposely stalled his exit so that it would coincide with the approach of the individual he had sensed, going through the door of his chambers at just the right moment so as to walk beside him. Given that this was a tradition, the acquaintance fully expected it.

"Good morning, Bosa," he greeted.

"As to you, Thorgas," he replied. Thorgas was a brawny, aged Namek, standing almost two heads above Bosa. His stern but calm and kind face was wrinkled from pain from his many years of battles and adorned with several small scars, the most prominent across the bridge of his nose. They were a visual testimonial to his years as the head of Namek's Warrior Clan and of the fierce battles he had fought to keep the people safe. He was dressed casually, being off-duty at the time.

"You seem troubled," Thorgas noted, his voice deep and gruff. "Will these negotiations really be such a chore for you?"

"Well, it depends," Bosa replied. "Ardrians are pleasant to work with, but they often let themselves be pushed around too easily. In contrast, I've worked with these specific miners before, and they tend to be quite forceful. So you can see the need for a proper, experienced mediator."

"Hmm," Thorgas grinned, as they walked through the spacious upper floor of the Makigai capitol palace, nodding to various other busy Namekians as they passed. "Would you like me to come along? I'm sure my presence alone would be incentive enough for both parties to behave themselves."

"Ah, no, don't worry about it," Bosa waved off the offer. "I will have Tanben there."

"Alright, then," the hefty Namek replied. "Slug and I are going out to celebrate, anyway."

"Ah, yes, congratulations on finally breaking up that smuggling ring."

"It wasn't my doing," Thorgas remarked. "It was all Slug. He even went so far as to infiltrate them. I'm not sure how he did it, but it must have been brilliant."

"That son of yours..." Bosa mused. "He's certainly remarkable..."

Thorgas picked up on the hint of uncertainty in Bosa's voice. "Is something wrong?"

"Not wrong, just," Bosa thought for a moment. "I've sensed a change in him, ever since he took over warding the city. Something feels... clouded. Unsure."

"I can't say I've felt anything out of the ordinary," Thorgas responded. The two began to descend a great spiral staircase, yet after a short while decided to take flight and steadily levitate themselves downwards instead. "Do you believe it's something dangerous? Unnatural?"

"I don't believe so, at least..." Bosa shook his head. "Ah, I'm sure it is nothing. There are some days I curse these perceptive powers of mine."

"Don't, they make you a fine ambassador," Thorgas patted his stout friend on the back, prompting a slight flinch from his strength. "Thank you for letting me know, though, old friend. I'll make sure to keep an eye on him."

"Certainly," Bosa remarked, as the two of them landed in the palace's majestic lobby and walked towards the main doors. "Though I'm sure my senses are just overreacting..." The two exited out the doors into the illustrious central garden, where the Palace resided in the exact center of the city. Off by the main gates, the two parties of the negotiations were visible, keeping their distances from each other and exchanging nothing but the occasional dirty look. A tall, deceptively scrawny-looking Namekian warrior was standing guard with them, likely keeping them from killing each other. He noticed Bosa and Thorgas, walked over a few yards to meet them, and bowed politely.

"Good evening, elders."

"To you too, Tanben," Thorgas replied. "Well then, if you're going to get to business right away," Thorgas gave a quick wave of a salute, and began to steadily hover away from them. "I'll be going."

"Enjoy yourself!" Bosa called out as his friend jetted away to the East. Then he turned to Tanben. "Now, then, shall we?"

The two of them approached the groups, among which all eyes were eagerly upon them.

"Good evening, gentlemen! How are you all?"

* * *

The markets of East Makigai were the most densely packed areas of the city, and after the city hall's Grand Ajissa Gardens, they were certainly the most well-known city landmark. The planet's grandest spaceport was situated to this edge of the city, making the market a bustling center of traffic and commerce. Every day, thousands of individuals from countless races traveled in, out, and all through within its numerous streets, adorned with all sorts of shops, offices, and various other outlets of business and leisure. Squarely bisecting this district was the wide and majestic thoroughfare known as Kalum's Pass. Named for an ancient Namekian priest, it was the setting of most of the area's hustle and bustle, as visitors inevitably passed through it on their way from the spaceport into the city's political and commercial heart.

Cleverly placed at a prime intersection, nearly at the halfway mark of Kalum's Pass, was a certain popular recreational establishment, entitled T_he Wayward Moon_. With two spacious floors, a full kitchen, and a deck on the roof with a marvelous view of both the spaceports and the majestic towers of the inner city, the tavern was quite often a prime gathering place and pit stop for all sorts of colorful and foreign travelers. But make no mistake; it did have its "regulars" as well.

One of these customary patrons was currently on the roof deck, the open spaces of which were relatively empty, save for a disinterested customer or two at the benches by the edges. Though as distant as they were, the patron, a tall, burly young Namekian warrior, was not without company. He was accompanied by a Namek child, whom he appeared to be tutoring in some fashion.

"Alright then," Slug remarked to the green youngster. "Have you got yourself adequately focused?"

The child stood there, arms at his side, his eyes closed in meditative concentration, giving no more than a slight nod for his answer.

"You need to be fully aware of and have a solid grasp on your own power." The warrior calmly dictated as he paced around the child. "Not just in the mental sense. It must be a _physical_ awareness." He stopped and made a clenched fist, as if gripping something. "You must take hold of your power as if it were a physical mass. Something malleable and material which you can shape to your liking."

The child focused more, a slight frown appearing on his brow. After a second or two, the warrior smiled.

"Good, you've got it. I can sense it. You've been practicing focusing your ki, haven't you?

The child smiled and nodded again, his eyes still closed all the time.

"Excellent. Now..."

He leaned down to emphasize the next instruction.

"Chop it in half."

The child immediately began to glow, which caught the attention of the few bystanders on the roof. Suddenly, he split in two, an exact clone of himself appearing right next to him. The sudden development shocked the other patrons nearby, bringing one to forcefully spew out some of his drink and comment to himself about laying off the stuff.

The young Namek was just as surprised, and opened his eyes to gawk in amazement at his new doppleganger, which seemed equally awestruck. The "identical twins" each made some awkward movements, periodically mimicking each other.

"This is incredible," he commented. "It's as i-"

"-f I'm in two places at once," the double finished.

"That's exactly it," the warrior commented. "With this technique, you essentially clone yourself. But you are more than just telepathically linked with the clone; you _are_ it. Your mind, your will, your very consciousness, is split between you and however many clones you make. But keep in mind that your power is divided as well."

"H-however many?" The child responded, which the clone then followed with, "I can make more than one?"

"As many as you have the ki and concentration to make." He replied. "Though that's still usually not many, because as I'm sure you're aware by now..."

With a gasp, the child buckled and fell to his knees, as the clone dissolved into energy and shifted back into him.

"...It's fairly hard to even maintain just one."

"W-wow..." The child sat for a moment, panting. "I've got to practice this one..."

"Yes, it will take quite a bit of effort to perfect it," the warrior said, reaching down and helping the youngster up. "As you can tell, it's fairly easy to actually make the split. Learning to control the copy as you wish is a bit more difficult."

He looked up at his teacher and smiled in proud satisfaction. "It... heh, doesn't seem THAT hard."

"Not too hard for you, apparently!" A new voice congratulated the young one. All eyes turned over and up to see Thorgas, head elder of the Warrior Clan, in midair above the street. He floated down to land on the rooftop deck, giving a quick round of applause as he did. "Well done, Kuji. I'm quite impressed!"

"Ah!" Kuji made a slight bow, his vibrant young face beaming all the while. "Thank you!" He looked up to the younger warrior. "And thank you for the lesson, Slug! Since Mister Thorgas is here now, I'll head right home and practice!"

"Ah, it's no trouble, Kuji. I quite enjoy having a pupil." He reached down and ruffled the child's antennae. "Make sure you don't over-exert yourself. But if you really wanted one last exercise..."

Kuji eyed him inquisitively. Slug grinned.

"Then don't take the tram home. Practice your flight instead."

"Oh! Yes, I think I will!" He ran over to the ledge, before turning around to them one last time. "Thank you again! I will see you tomorrow!" He turned back around, and closed his eyes to focus his power for a moment more before steadily rising up off the ground. Thorgas and Slug watched him wobbly float away for a minute before turning to head downstairs.

"Really," Thorgas commented. "The Split-Form technique?"

Slug grinned. "What, you didn't think he could do it?"

"I'm not so much surprised as I am... impressed, I suppose," Thorgas mused as the two of them started down the stairway. "Despite its simplicity, it's a very hard technique to learn, much less master. Especially at such a young age. I mean, I myself can only maintain three clones."

Slug let out a quick chortle.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Thorgas playfully interrogated. "How many can you make?"

"Not telling," Slug retorted, amused with himself. "Nonetheless, Kuji's not to be underestimated. For one born and raised in the Dragon Clan, he's quite multi-talented. I'd almost label him a prodigy."

Thorgas nodded as they went through the door into the tavern's interior. "Katatz must be quite proud."

* * *

Shio kept to herself at her table in the corner, casually sipping on her drink as she watched the patrons come and go. The _Moon_ was a more prominent and popular place than she'd expected, making it fairly easy to blend in unnoticed. Good thing, too. Bounty hunters like herself weren't exactly an uncommon sight in major spaceports like this, but it'd still be in her best interest to stay incognito. After all, she was still merely tracking her target and gathering information at this point. Until she could decide between future options, it'd be best to stay out of trouble.

"Speaking of trouble," she murmured to herself at the sight of a few incoming customers. It was a rugged-looking group of about a half-dozen individuals. They had tanned skin and pitch-dark hair of various shapes and lengths, most of them had their long, simian-like tails wrapped around their waists like belts, and all of them smelled vaguely of dried blood and cheap, expired food.

Saiyans.

"Ugh..." One of them complained, rubbing his temple. "Regarian Ale should be illegal."

"It is."

"Then it should be MORE illegal. Nothing else to do but drink now, anyway." He raised an arm and bellowed towards the counter. "Hey, can we get some service here?"

A young, shapely waitress noticed, nodded, and meekly took several cups and a pitcher of some generic-looking beverage over to them, which they abruptly snatched up. As she scurried back towards the kitchen, Shio took better notice of her. Her darker skin had been a clue, but now her short, silver hair becoming briefly visible under the hood she wore, as well as the small, triangular marks above her eyes, gave her away as another of Shio's own people. _She's Sodian_, _huh?_ Shio thought to herself. _Looks like she managed to get off the planet somehow. Got herself a job, too. Good for her._

Her thoughts were interrupted when the Saiyans, unfortunately just a few tables from her, spoke up again.

"Geez, so what now, Zunim?" One of them, fat and bulbous and the exception to the wrapped-around tail trend, asked another between gulps of his drink. "Egh, this stuff's horrible." He took another large sip anyway. "They got the boss, got our ship, got our supplies..."

"I know, I know," Zunim, the evenly-proportioned one with the headache, and apparently the impromptu replacement boss, replied. "I guess... We gotta get passage on other ships somehow. Find our way back to the convoy..."

"They took most of our money, too," another Saiyan commented, dressed in dark clothing with his hair covering the entire right side of his face. He held up his cup. "I don't even know how we're supposed to afford these drinks."

"I know that!" Zunim snapped, and took another large gulp. "If we have to, we can..." He groaned. "Find normal jobs. Earn up enough money to get off this planet." He folded his arms on the table, lowered his torso down and glared at nothing in particular. "Fuh. This is demeaning. We're Saiyans, damnit. We shouldn't allow ourselves to end up so belittled as this." He sat back up straight and took another large swig.

"I... I don't know," another, leaner Saiyan with tall hair mumbled, inebriation beginning to set in. "How that job could have been botched so badly..."

"If Zunim's right," a taller, muscular Saiyan commented. "Then it wush doomed from the start."

"Right," Zunim growled. 'It'sh all that damn Namek's fault! He was there all along, learning all our plans, waiting to get us all together before he squirmed out from under his rock to snatch us!" He yelled as he crushed the metal cup in his grip like paper, the remaining alcohol inside spilling out onto his hand. "I coulda beat him. But I wasn't prepared for him," He continued his drunken rant, soliciting shouts of agreement from his crewmates. "I couldn't transform, either... With three suns, this mudball never has any night, never gets a decent full moon..." He threw his arm up and bellowed, "This whole freaking planet was against us!"

Naturally, the drunken rant was causing quite a stir. Shio was becoming uncomfortable, as were the rest of the bar's patrons. She considered getting up to do something, or at least moving to another table, or a different floor… until suddenly, someone stepped in for her. Unfortunately, it was quite a bad choice.

"Um... excuse me," the young Sodian waitress addressed them, trembling in fear the whole time. "C-could I please ask you to lower your voices? Some of the other customers are becoming upset, and..." She stammered as Zunim slowly stood up in front of her and glared. "a-a-and..."

"And _what?_" Zunim practically spit his words. "They want ush to stop? To leave? To shuccumb t' them?"

"N-no..." The girl was practically crying. "Just..."

In a drunken rage, Zunim threw his crushed cup past her at full force, it zooming past mere inches from her head, eliciting a quick shriek of fright from her as she recoiled. The cup nearly missed a few other patrons as it flew, before smashing through a piece of cheap pottery on a shelf and embedding itself in the wall. Zunim continued yelling.

"We are Saiyans! We're strong!" The small amount of dust around him kicked up and was blown away as Zunim inadvertently powered up in his anger. "And we will not be ordered around! Especially. Not. By. _YOU_!"

He swiftly smacked the terrified young waitress across the cheek. As she stumbled backwards towards the floor, Shio and several other equally enraged bystanders swiftly stood, not intending to allow this to continue.

_ Screw my cover if everyone else is doing it_, Shio thought. _No way I'm letting this dirtbag get away with striking the poor girl, and to top it off, she's a fellow Sodian..._ She gulped in anxiety. _I don't know how much I can do against a gang of angry Saiyans, but..._

"Everyone, back off."

All eyes turned to the source of the commanding voice. It came from another corner of the room, the one opposite of Shio. There stood two tall, burly Namekian warriors, one older and battle-scarred, the other younger and broad-shouldered. The older one spoke again.

"We'll handle it."

* * *

A good portion of the patrons began to carefully filter their way out of the room as Thorgas and Slug calmly walked over to the spot of the incident. The older one knelt down next to the girl and picked her head up off the ground. Groggy, she turned to meet his eyes with hers, one of which was swelling to complement the bleeding mark on her cheek.

"...Sir Thorgas..."

"Hold still, Chlori. I'll help." His free hand began to softly glow, and he placed it against her wounded face. She allowed her eyelids to close as the remaining bystanders witnessed her wound close itself and the bruising fade away. She reopened her eyes, sat up straight, and put a hand to the area. She then smiled up at the old Namek, slight tears budding on the borders of her eyes.

"Ah, thank you so much..."

Thorgas smiled warmly and helped her up. "No worries. Now," he motioned towards the back kitchen. "You might want to get clear..."

She nodded and complied, running back to join her boss. Thorgas turned towards the gang of Saiyans. One of them, the leader, was snarling in barely-suppressed rage and scowling at Slug, who simply stood there, his arms folded, with a proud smirk.

"So we meet again. Zunim, was it?" Slug taunted. "I've got to hand it to you, not many people I fight manage to actually escape. You're a pretty clever monkey."

"Y-you..." Zunim clenched his fists at his sides and ground his teeth, a bulging vein visible on his brow. "You've ruined me... I'll kill you..."

"This is him, Slug?" Thorgas joined his son. "The one that got away?"

"The very same," he responded. "I know we're off duty at the moment, but," Slug tipped his head in reference to the angry Saiyans. "Feel like bringing this one in, anyway?"

"Sure, why not." Thorgas gently removed his outer coat, and cracked his knuckles. "...And here I thought it was going to be a boring evening..."

"Don't you dare belittle us, you green bastards!" Zunim spread out his arms as he yelled. A bright aura formed around him, knocking away the immediate tables around him as he powered up for battle. The rest of the gang followed suit. "Let's go, gang!"

Two of the six Saiyans darted out and to either side of the two Namekians, and another jumped forward and up, flipping around in midair to land behind them. The remaining three, including Zunim in the middle, took a similar formation in front, effectively surrounding the green warriors. Slug smiled, and motioned to Thorgas to his right.

Six against two. Not very good odds.

"I'll take the ones on the left."

With a yell, the Saiyans jumped in and converged on their targets. The rear-right one threw a hard, direct punch at the back of Thorgas' head, but he easily ducked down to avoid it. Planting his left hand on the ground and whipping his legs around from his left, he hit the Saiyan in the legs and knock him down off-balance. At the same time, another Saiyan charged at Slug, arms out in intent to grapple him. Slug countered by backing up a few steps and stretching his right arm forward in order to grasp the Saiyan by his shirt. He then swung the Saiyan around his left side, bringing his head crashing into the ribs of the one Thorgas had tripped, both of them flying off a few yards and crashing into a table.

The one in the rear left had had jumped into the air, meaning to kick Slug in the head once the other had pinned him. The tables were turned on him when Slug used his momentum to drive a powerful kick straight upwards into the Saiyan's gut. He was propelled upward, crashing into and leaving a large fissure in the ceiling, before falling back down to the floor, unconscious.

Five against two now. Those odds were getting even worse.

Zunim and the remaining two lackeys, one in front of Thorgas and the other in front of Slug, who was now facing the opposite direction, decided not to recklessly charge. Rather, they each leaped back towards the edges of the room and began firing repeated ki blasts at the warriors. The blasts seemed to hit their marks, and the floor splintered apart at the point of impact, scattering pieces of wood and clay and kicking up a large amount of dust.

"Did we get 'em?"

"No."

Startled at the sudden voice behind him, one of the Saiyan thugs quickly turned, only to receive a spinning kick to the head from Thorgas. He went flying across the room, doing several midair barrel rolls before tumbling to a halt against the far wall, out cold.

Four against two. Not a good place to be.

Meanwhile, the other two whom had collided earlier had recovered and were flying towards the Zunim-focused Slug, intent on joining the remaining unharmed one in ganging up on him. Thorgas reacted, diving headfirst into their path. He went into a handstand, and thrust both his legs straight upwards, nailing a Saiyan with each foot. They went flying straight upwards into the ceiling, one of them hitting the already-weakened spot and crashing straight through into the second floor of the tavern. He hit his head on a steel rafter and fell back down to the first floor, knocked out.

Three on two. Now it was getting hopeless.

The second one attempted to counter-attack, pushing himself off the ceiling and directing a kick back down towards Thorgas, but the seasoned warrior easily sidestepped it, then drove a shattering punch to the Saiyan's gut. He blacked out, and slumped to the floor.

Two against two, now. Not a chance.

Realizing the futility of the fight, the remaining unharmed Saiyan began to panic and frantically assessed the situation. Thorgas wasn't looking, and Slug was busy with Zunim. He jumped to the wall on his left and rebounded off of it, making a mad break for the door.

Needless to say, Thorgas was actually quite aware of him, and was prepared with about a half-dozen different ways to deal with him. However, something else caught his attention from Slug and Zunim's direction, and he whipped around to focus on them instead.

Zunim was suspended a whole yard above the ground, Slug's broad hand coiled in a tight grip around his throat. Zunim was coated by a crackling, electricity-like blue aura, which flared and shimmered as he struggled. As he flailed, grabbing at his assailant's hand, the aura also sparked and "attacked" the point of contact between the two.

"Y-you... kill...n-noo... kkkkcghk..."

The aura began to fizzle and fade away, as Zunim's face went pale. His struggling slowed almost to a complete halt, and his eyes began to white out as Slug choked the life out of him. Thorgas stared in a horrified stupor as Slug stood there, boldly holding him up. The younger Namekian's face was twisted into a sinister sneer, and his wide eyes were like that of a madman, as he reveled in his prey's suffering.

"I told you..." He hissed from between his grin-clenched teeth, "...You wouldn't escape me again..."

Thorgas snapped out of his shock, and rushed to his son. Bosa had been right; something was very wrong!

"Slug! STOP!"


	2. You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry

**DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM**

By Kaboom Krusader

Chapter Two - "_You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry_"

The "evening" sunlight beamed in through the west window, warmly illuminating the interior of large workshop. Being a part of one of the three Elders' living chambers, it was situated high within Makigai's capitol tower. Though otherwise spacious, it was filled with an assortment of tools and building materials, leaving barely enough room for its elderly inhabitant to traverse through it. At this moment, that individual was seated opposite the window, at his large, wooden, half-covered desk, performing a task that had become almost a daily ritual of late.

With a single wrinkled, fragile hand, Katatz lightly handled and examined the tiny glass sphere. As it and the six others reflected the image of his face, so he also inwardly reflected on them. Accounting only for their outward beauty, one would immediately praise their perfect, geometric form, their bold, exotic colors, and the craftsmanship behind their molding. But under that superficial beauty, they would likely never guess as to just how much of a threat they posed.

Thanks to this danger, despite all the effort put into them, he had no choice but to label these Dragon Balls as a failed experiment. He'd already nearly completed their replacement, and had intended to seal the dangerous set away. But something kept drawing him to them. Each night, when he was alone, he would inevitably give in to the temptation to take them out of their chamber, and just gaze at them. It was as if they were a pack of sirens, and he allowed them to draw him in ever closer, despite knowing the peril.

Katatz shook his head, and broke himself out of his daze. He had to figure out what to do with them. If necessary, he'd have them destroyed. It would certainly be preferable to them being used. He gathered them back into their padded wooden case and locked it. He steadily stood up from his desk, his aged knees creaking in protest, and lugged the box to the North side of the room. Gingerly carrying the box under one arm, he reached and entered a wide, heavy door, and then entered the great closet beyond it. Covering the numerous shelves within were a multitude of raw materials, tools, and half-finished projects. Katatz' focus fell upon the safe situated dead center across from the door.

He knelt down to place the box inside, but then paused. For a moment, he stared at it, abruptly once again filled with the strange temptation to gaze on the spheres. Everything else around him seemed to warp and fade out of view, and he suddenly found his focus irremovable from the box. No, not the box itself, but the Dragon Balls inside. He could feel the presence of each of the seven, their essence seeming to radiate right through their container. He could almost hear and see them, like a pack of sirens, tempting him ever closer, and closer...

Snapping back to attention, Katatz quickly shoved the box inside the safe, shut and locked it, then hastily stormed out of the closet, soundly closing the door behind him. He leaned back against it, closed his eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief. This was getting worse. Why had their pull on him been so intense this time? Were the balls in possession of some sort of intelligence? No, that was ridiculous. Katatz shook his head once more, as he rationalized it. They were an experiment, after all; a test of a different method of linking to their creator. This strange psychological magnetism was more likely than anything merely a side-effect of that.

_Or perhaps I'm just going crazy in my old age,_ Katatz thought, as he hobbled back over to his desk, and picked up and leaned on the walking stick that had laid against it. He allowed himself to turn and glance at the closet one more time.

_Regardless, I must be rid of them somehow. It would be best to destroy them..._

_ ...Tomorrow._

"Father, I'm home!"

Katatz was yet again ripped away from his distracted state. He walked out into the hallway from where the familiar young voice had originated, and smiled as he saw his young son, who was climbing into the chambers through an open window.

"Kuji, as proud of you as I am for making such progress on your flight technique," he playfully scolded. "I still wish you'd use the door."

"Hehe," Kuji chuckled, and hopped down to the floor. "I'm sorry, but Slug told me to practice flying instead of taking the tram, so I figured I would practice gaining height as well." He pointed Eastward. "I flew all the way here from the _Wayward Moon_! I only stopped once!"

"All that way?" Katatz was stunned. _Amazing,_ he thought. _At his age, I could barely keep aloft long enough to cross the street, yet he can traverse nearly half the city?_

His aged, wrinkled face lifted into a wide grin, Katatz knelt down next to his son, ignoring his creaking knees' protests. "Slug has found himself quite the student," he commented. His proud gazing caused him to notice a growing bruise on Kuji's forehead. Pointing to it, he asked, "what happened here?"

"Oh," Kuji reached up to poke it, wincing a bit as he did. "When I was almost home, I felt Slug and Mr. Thorgas raise their ki real sudden," he grinned playfully. "It distracted me, and I flew into a building."

"Ahaha," Katatz chuckled lightly along with his son, before he started coughing. He pounded his chest with his free hand to recover, then steadily stood back up. "I suppose you should go put some ice on that," he said. "May as well wash up for bed, also."

"Yes, father," Kuji happily replied, and trotted down the hallway into another room. Katatz smiled after him for a moment. Though he wasn't a bragging man, it was obvious Kuji was far above and beyond the other children his age. Not only in the art of creating Dragon Balls, like his father, but apparently in a wide variety of knowledge and techniques, as his "lessons" from Slug were proving.

_Hmm,_ Katatz mused. _Though I hope he doesn't become TOO caught up in duties outside of the Dragon Clan. If he is to succeed me someday, he'll need to focus his energies in that area._ He smiled, and inwardly rebuked himself. _Ah, but it his choice, after all. He is a wonderful, talented boy. He is surely destined for greatness, wherever he ends up._

"Father, I'm home!"

Startled, Katatz swiftly turned around to see Kuji again climbing in through the window. The puzzled elder Namek sharply looked back and forth between the new Kuji and the door which the first one had left through.

"Um, Kuji? What..."

"Oh, I'm sorry for climbing in through the window, father," Kuji once again commented. "But Slug told me to practice flying instead of taking the tram, so I figured I would practice gaining height as well." He pointed Eastward. "I flew all the way here from the _Wayward Moon_! I only stopped once!"

The old Namek stared at his son, dumbfounded. Maybe he WAS going crazy! Kuji smiled back for a few second, before breaking into a toothy grin and chuckling. Suddenly, he dissolved into a mass of red ki energy, which shifted out of sight in the direction the first Kuji had left in. Katatz was left even more flabbergasted, even though he now realized what had just happened.

"Split-Form?" Even he could barely believe it. _He surely didn't know how to do that yesterday... He just today learned it from Slug, and then refined it ON HIS WAY HOME?_ Katatz rubbed his temples, while still grinning all the while. He needed to lie down; this was just too much.

* * *

This was just too much. Rarely did fate throw one such sparkling gold second chances and opportunities for payback. Slug was determined to not let it go to waste.

His father Thorgas had darted away, avoiding the explosion and heading upwards above and behind the two Saiyan thugs who had fired the volley of ki blasts, likely intending to surprise them from the back. But Slug didn't bother, and powered up enough to allow him to brush off the one or two stray shots that actually hit him as he walked the opposite direction. Grinning as he marched, he casually approached the Saiyans' impromptu ringleader, the one named Zunim, whom had escaped him at the bust on the smugglers' meeting the previous day. He had recognized him instantly. The high-spiked hair, with two or three stray strands hanging down onto his face. The darkly-colored simian tail. The scar over the left eye. The image had been burned into Slug's mind, festering ever since the Saiyan had slipped through his fingers. This time, he wouldn't be making any such lucky breaks.

"Sorry," he taunted, "but you won't be squirming away again." He cracked his knuckles. "Of course you're welcome to try. It would make this workout even better."

"Heheh, don't worry," Zunim smirked. "I won't be going anywhere." He struck a ready stance, and pointed at the Namek. "I was unprepared last time. But now, I know what you can do, and how to counter it."

"Really now?"

The Saiyan crouched, and snarled as he focused his ki. His garments flapped in the ki-generated wind that swirled around him as he powered up. Suddenly, though, the gathering of energy took on an unexpected effect. With an inward push of energy, small blue bolts of lightning began to jump outward and around the Saiyan's body. In a few more seconds, they exploded into a crackling blue aura that completely enveloped him. He finished the power-up, and looked back at Slug.

"Come at me whenever you're ready."

Slug was more than happy to oblige, and dashed straight forward towards the renegade alien. He threw his right arm forward for a punch, but Zunim dodged it to the left. Keeping the momentum, Slug swung his right leg around to try nailing him in the head, but Zunim saw it coming, and pushed himself forward, actually canceling out the kick with a headbutt. On contact, a quick jolt of energy, generated by Zunim's aura, jumped out from his forehead and singed Slug's leg, causing the Namek to recoil in pain.

Both combatants landed back on their feet, as Slug examined the slight burn. Zunim laughed aloud, and addressed his opponent.

"Hahahahaha~! How you like that, freak?" He snapped his fingers a few times, causing the energy to spark. "With this, I'm untouchable! You, however, aren't!" He braced, and then launched himself at high speeds towards Slug. He landed a powerful right hook to the Namek's jaw, then as he recoiled, he drove his left knee straight into his solar plexus, and followed up with a forceful palm right to the face, knocking him back and away. The blue energy flashed and arced into Slug with each blow, and he slid to a crouched halt a few yards away. Tiny plumes of smoke wafted from the points of impact.

"You're right. That," Slug remarked as he stood back up. "Is quite an interesting technique." His eyes widened, as a devilish, intrigued grin crept across his face. "Care to demonstrate it for me more, scumbag?"

"Fine! You want it, you've got it!" Zunim rushed once more, jumping up above and behind Slug. He drove his foot downwards, nailing a strong kick to the back of the Namek's neck, energy from the aura sparking brightly on impact. Slug hobbled forward slightly, seemingly off-balance. Zunim landed and, not wasting a second, dashed forward, going low, aiming to kick his opponent's feet out from under him.

Suddenly, Slug instantly regained his balance, solidly planting his left foot on the ground behind him. Before Zunim could react, he swung his left arm backwards like an out-of-control wrecking ball. His massive, high-powered fist backhand-slammed right into Zunim's face, and the Saiyan was sent hurtling backwards at nearly triple the speed he'd been previously moving on his own. He smashed straight through several tables and chairs, which offered little resistance, splintering apart. Finally, the far concrete wall put a stop to Zunim's impromptu flight, cracking and sending some debris flying as he crashed back-first and upside-down into it. His fancy aura crackled out began to fade, as he slumped down head first onto the floor, a silhouette-like impression left in the wall where he'd made impact.

Groaning in pain, he steadily raised his head up to see Slug slowly walking towards him, a sly, malicious grin on his face. Seeing that smug expression reignited Zunim's anger, prompting him to rise to his feet. He yelled a vicious, pained battle cry, and the aura blazed back into view around him. He charged up a mass of it into his right hand, and threw it with all his might. It hit its mark dead on, and crackled and flashed as it exploded, attaching itself to and attacking Slug even as it did.

Not giving him time to recover, Zunim jumped forward with all his might, landing on and planting both feet on to Slug's chest. Mounting him, he bent down and repeatedly pummeled Slug's head at high speeds. The aura crackled and glowed around Zunim's feet, and Slug's face was nearly obscured by the constant bright flares of deadly energy.

"Die, you bastard! Die, die, die, DIE!"

"I was just thinking the same thing."

Suddenly, the Namek's right arm bolted out and grasped Zunim by the throat. He straightened his posture, resulting in him holding Zunim suspended nearly a full yard off the floor. Zunim's eyes went wide with shock, as he quickly realized how futile his actions had been.

"H-how? This is supposed to make me -kgggh- invulnerable..."

He grunted, and flared the electric-like blue aura up to it's maximum. Bolts of blue lightning arced outwards, connecting to the surfaces, furniture and ornaments immediately surrounding the two combatants. The energy contacting Slug's hand shimmered and resounded, violently attempting to counter-attack the assailant.

However, Slug was completely unharmed, save for one small trail of blood dripping down from his lip. He simply smiled and licked it off. He then grunted again, and suddenly his muscles bulked up as he raised his own power level. His grip on Zunim's throat firmly tightened, causing the Saiyan to gasp for air and start clawing at Slug's arm with both hands.

"You're not so tough," Slug informed him. "I've met criminals, powerful beings who come to this world, that make you look like an insect by comparison. I've fought with monsters that would cause you to recoil and run in terror just by looking at them."

Zunim viciously glared, his anger rising even as his strength began to diminish.

"H-h-hate youu..."

Slug sinisterly chuckled. "You hate me? Good. Your hatred only benefits me. It makes you rash. Careless. Even more stupid than you already are. The perfect state of mind for bringing you down." He brought Zunim's face down close, and looked him right in the eye. "I, on the other hand, am cunning. Powerful. A tactical master. I am the law of this world, and you were a fool to break it. You were a fool to cross ME. And..." He hoisted the Saiyan back up into the air.

"Y-you... kill...n-noo... kkkkcghk..."

Slug then tightened his grip again, and delighted in the results. The Saiyan's struggle all but completely ceased. His face went pale, his breathing was ragged, and the aura fizzled and popped as it began to fade away.

"...I told you," Slug uttered through his teeth, which were clenched into a wide grin. "You wouldn't escape me again..."

Slug heard shouting from somewhere, but ignored it, totally focused on his prey.

"I'll kill you," he reminded. "And then I'll hunt down and kill the rest of your little gang..." The Saiyan's body went limp, as his labored breathing became inaudible. "...and I'll hang all your bodies by the West gate, as a warning..."

Slug arched up his left fist, and it began to brightly glow as he channeled ki into it for the finishing blow.

"...of what happens when I am defied!"

He threw his fist forward, aiming to pierce and decimate the Saiyan's heart. But suddenly, his blow was interrupted just short of impact, as a burly hand firmly grasped his forearm.

Slug snapped out of his fury. His arms relaxed, the charged ki in his fist faded, and Zunim fell from his grip and slumped to the floor. He gasped, and began wheezing, as the color slowly returning to his features while he lay sprawled out.

Slug turned to see the proprietor of the meddling appendage. It was his father Thorgas, and his face was crunched into a stern but concerned frown.

"Slug," he said. "What... was that?"

The son stared off into space.

"I don't know."

"I'll tell you what it was," Thorgas reprimanded, as he released his son's arm. "It was blood-lust. Cruelty. Excessive force. And that's NOT the way we do things."

"..."

"Look at me," Thorgas ordered. The younger warrior complied, turning to him to listen. "I was afraid of this. It seems putting you in charge of keeping order over the entire city may have been too much. Even though you're succeeding in upholding the law and peace, it's overworking you. You're stressed and frustrated, and it's not safe to take that out on others, even criminals."

Slug continued to stare silently.

"Now come," Thorgas commanded. "We need to compensate the proprietor for the damages to the bar and round up the gang members. Then, we should head home. I think you're in need of some special treatment."

Thorgas walked towards the kitchen to look for the bartender, but after a short distance, realized Slug wasn't following. He turned to see him staring at the floor space where the Saiyan had just been. It was now empty, with the Saiyan nowhere to be seen.

"He got away," Slug calmly whispered. "Again..."

Thorgas frowned. "Forget him, he's had enough." He motioned for Slug to follow. "He won't be causing any more trouble after all that. It would be meaningless to pursue him. Now come."

Thorgas left the room, and Slug started to follow. Before he exited, he turned and took one last glance at the empty spot.

"Forget...?"

* * *

"Yes, let it go..."

Thorgas stood beside his son, a hand firmly placed on top of his head. As he spoke, he concentrated, digging deep down into the younger Warrior's soul, visualizing his thoughts and molding his ki. This was an ancient, customary ritual within the Warrior Clan, performed by masters in order to draw out a disciple's greatest present potential. This way, they could fully reap the rewards of their recent training.

This time around with Slug, however, Thorgas decided Slug had enough going for him in terms of power, an obvious conclusion after witnessing the events at the tavern. So instead, Thorgas concentrated on the mental conditioning aspects of the ritual. This exercise would be one of cleansing.

He dug down, and took inventory of Slug's emotions. He could "see" them. They were scattered. Random. Wild. Yet at the same time, they bore a strange sense of focus and purpose. Just as he had expected them to be. Not even a year ago, Thorgas had handed down responsibility for directly keeping order over the city to his son. That is to say, Slug would now be the one giving out orders, setting up stings, tracking down criminals, and generally seeing most of the action, whereas Thorgas retained the chore of overseeing the training of younger warriors, and doing the majority of the diplomatic and legal paperwork. Essentially, half or more of his duties as Head Warrior Elder were now in Slug's hands. This was an large and important step towards Thorgas' eventual retirement, and Slug's subsequent inheritance of his position.

"Take hold of your emotions. Reign them in, and put them in order..."

But such adjustments in life are rarely easy, especially ones of such a radical scale, and Thorgas had half-anticipated such a reaction from Slug. The stress and pressure of upholding the law, and living up to such great and vital expectations had worn on him. The sudden surge of effort he was forced to put out in order to do his job had spawned the unfortunate side effect of obsession. The city, and maintaining law and order within it, had become Slug's life in and of itself. He was trying very hard; TOO hard, in fact, and it was unsurprising that anything which might repeatedly interfere or set back that ambition would end up becoming the object of his frustrations.

"Allow the negative emotions to fade away. The rage, the frustration, the impatience," Thorgas continued to chant. Slug sat cross-legged on the floor, his eyes closed, as a pale, flowing white aura surrounded him as the ritual continued. "Take them, crush them, and scatter them into the wind. They are unimportant. A hindrance. Remember the Namekian spirit and code. We are peace. Progress. Prosperity. One with our planet, the heavens, and the deities we create and herald." He slowly began to withdraw from his son's mind, bringing the ritual near its end. "We are above petty and meaningless concepts of revenge, hate, and jealousy. We seek to improve ourselves and the universe around us. We are..."

He lifted his hand, breaking the connection fully and completing the ritual. As he did, both he and Slug spoke.

"...Born for greater things."

Thorgas cracked a slight smile, and backed up slightly as Slug stood himself up. The elder reached out, and placed a hand on one of his son's shoulders.

"Feel better?"

"...Yes."

"Good," he replied. "Listen, don't forget what I've said. I know you're under a lot of stress, but you can't allow meaningless little incidents get to you. One or two little, no-name criminals will get away every once in a while. It happens." He turned Slug to face him, and brought his other hand up the the remaining shoulder. The two stood face to face, practically even in height, but Slug's broad torso and powerful arms starkly contrasting his father's more lean, well-rounded build. "But fate will always hand them whatever they deserve in the end. If we are not the ones meant to be fate's vessel, then so be it. Better to let it go then to have your emotions get the best of you. Drive and ambition are a blessing, but any blessing is a curse the moment you allow it to gain control over you."

"Of course," Slug nodded. "I'm sorry for my behavior. I suppose you're right about my being overworked."

Thorgas removed his hands, and began walking. Their living quarters, located in the Southern side-tower of the capitol building, was spacious and finely crafted. Though it was fairly spartan in its decoration and luxuries, as was typical of a Warrior Namek's dwelling, it was still quite comfortable. The main chamber was mostly open space, save for a few chairs, a dining table for guests, and a desk, currently littered with Thorgas' paperwork. Off to one side was their training room. The circular, enclosed chamber was constructed of heavy, thick stone. This allowed the walls to hold up when banged against during sparring sessions, as well become nearly entirely soundproof, making the room an ideal place for meditation. Directly opposite of it , a large balcony outside to the East hung out over the Ajissa Gardens, and provided a clear view of the city beyond, all the way down to the great spaceport on the island's Eastern shore. Thorgas walked out to the balcony, Slug following close behind.

"In that case," the elder mentioned. "Maybe the best thing for you to do now is to take the night off." He motioned around. "I'll have Kagyu take your night patrol. He's been itching for one lately anyway. I'd suggest just sticking around here. Meditate for a while. Or sit out here and watch the suns rise." He turned around to exit, patting Slug on the shoulder as he passed. "I have the weekly meeting with Bosa and Katatz in a short while, so you'll have the place to yourself."

Slug cracked a quick smile in return. "Thank you," he remarked. He walked forward, and leaned against the balcony rail. Thorgas gave one last, unseen glance, his expression a mix of relief, as well as uncertainty. He quickly made his way out the door. Slug remained near motionless, aimlessly gazing out into the city, his mind fixated who-knows-where.

After about fifteen minutes, Namek's third and closest sun began to peek up over the horizon. A few more minutes, and the light was stolen from the lowest parts of the inner city, as its own shadow was cast over it.

Only then did Slug leap over the rail, off the balcony, and down into the darkness.

* * *

It seemed to be a universal law. No matter how noble or peaceful a species, or how otherwise hospitable and clean their cities were, there would always be deep, dark pits where you just shouldn't go. Yet here Shio was, making her way through a subterranean thoroughfare in the northern sectors of the spaceport. It was once a main passage into the Northern parts of the city, but any use of it had all but ceased after a larger and more direct road was constructed over a decade ago. Since then, the smaller passage had fallen into disarray, and was now largely a shelter for the more unscrupulous visitors to the city. In between the scattered working street lights, you might find a rare occupied shack, or even an open bar. It would be wise to take refuge or at least stay in a group if you could, because you never knew when someone with a higher battle power than yourself might approach you for the wrong reasons. The down-on-their-luck, homeless and wanted often plodded their way through, and if you watched the right dark corner long enough, you might see some tiny alien vermin scurry out, check for food, and then be smart enough to retreat back to its den. For even they knew better than to cross some of the larger unscrupulous creatures that frequented these depths.

For the last few hours, Shio had been following one such unfriendly being. The Saiyan pirate, Zunim. She had witnessed his entire ugly beat-down at the hands of the Namekian warrior in the bar. She had kept her eyes on him as he was dropped and barely allowed to escape with his life. She had followed him, keeping a close watch as he aimlessly traversed the city and nursed his wounds. And now, she continued to observe him as he stopped in the city's dankest corner to rest and rethink his options. She kept her distance, leaning against a lamp post a short distance down the street, and watched him from under the dark, hooded robe she wore over top of her armor. After a few moments, she saw him take a seat on the curb of the street. He began to mutter inaudibly to himself, and with each passing second, Shio found herself holding more and more pity for him. Not because of any sense of smug superiority, or even so much because of what he had gone through. But because she knew what was still in store for him.

She'd seen the Namekian's eyes, as he'd held Zunim's throat in that death grip. They were deadly. Obsessive. Crazed. She knew one thing for a fact, and it was that he wouldn't be satisfied with his "prey" slipping away a second time. He would be back to finish the job. And as morbid as it may have been, Shio was counting on him to do just that.

A few more minutes passed, uneventfully. Shio had to work hard to keep herself from nodding off, having been awake for who knows how long. It was damned near impossible to keep track of time on this planet, with its eternal daylight up on the surface. But after almost a week of practically non-stop scouting, she finally had a plausible lead. She wasn't going to let it slip away for something as trivial as a nap.

Suddenly, she saw the Saiyan snap to attention, and stare down the dark road as if he'd heard something. Shio certainly hadn't, though. She'd heard Saiyan senses were of above-average acuity compared to other races, so it was probably good that she'd had advance warning of whoever or whatever was approaching. Zunim slowly stood up, his knees visibly quaking, as he mumbled to himself further in fright. He took off at the best speed his injured body could possibly take him down the road, obviously in the opposite direction of whatever he'd heard. Shio held her position, not wanting to scare him further with any conveniently-timed movements of her own, and let him disappear down the dark alleyway.

As expected, her real target emerged from the opposite direction, and started down to follow the renegade. It was unmistakably him. He was now wearing a dark, ragged, hooded cloak, but there were no mistaking that build, and who else would be so devotedly hunting Zunim. It was Slug the Warrior Namek again, for sure.

Shio let him get some distance, before she made her move. She slowly and stealthily crept forward, and followed him into the near pitch-black area the two had entered. Rather than follow on ground level, she lept upwards, deftly landing on a long series of pipework that ran suspended along the ceiling. It was darker up here, so she silently reached down into the small equipment pouch on her thigh, producing a small, economical pair of night-vision goggles. Donning and activating them, she crept forward once more.

She could now see both of them clearly, farther down the tunnel. Even though he was a good distance ahead of Slug, Shio could understand how terrifying a view he must have, to look behind him and see a small, but steadily approaching dark outline of his tormenting pursuer against the dim light behind him. But that would pale in comparison to the fright he'd experience if he knew what lay ahead of him.

A dead end.

It seemed that because of it's disuse, the tunnel had been closed off a few years ago. It had been chopped apart, in order for an improved sewer line to run through, and several yards worth of solid, universal-grade concrete had been used to fill the gaps on either side. Zunim discovered this the hard way, when he abruptly ran into it face-first in his panicked hurry. He recovered, then turned around to see Slug suddenly just a few feet away from him. Mortified, he fell backwards and began freaking out.

"N-no! Please! I'm done! I won't cause any more trouble! I don't want to die! Oh plea-"

Slug's response was quite unexpected.

"Relax," he said. "I'm not here to finish you off."

Shio's eyes went wide with surprise. _What?_ She thought. _I know I haven't seen much of this Slug person, but... This isn't like him._

"Y-you're not?" Zunim scuttled backwards a bit, before standing back up and steadying himself against the dead-end wall. "What... no, you're lying! You must be! I saw you when you w-"

"I said it, and I mean it," Slug responded. "I've decided I want something from you more valuable than your pathetic life."

"...What?"

"It's," Slug held out a hand, which he then clenched into a fist. A dark, ambitious grin erupted from him under the cowl. "That technique of yours. The defensive, static aura. Tell me about it."

Zunim only stared, dumbfounded.

"I know what you Saiyans are like. You're all about brute force. Raw power. Quite straightforward in your attack strategies, with little or no attention paid to defense. Even your transformation just makes you bigger and tougher. So such a defense-oriented attack isn't very 'Saiyan,' and based on what I've sense in the tricky way your ki was channeled to use it, I highly doubt any of you would be clever enough to come up with it anyway. So do tell," he inquired. "Where DID you learn it, and from whom?"

Zunim only glared for another moment, before speaking. "Why should I tell you?"

"I thought you might ask that," Slug responded. "The obvious answer, of course, is that I'll kill you if you don't. However, I'll let you in on a little-known fact about me. The truth is, I'm not just your average Warrior Namek, though I'm sure you knew that already. But I don't just mean in terms of power, I meant influence. I am, in fact, the only son of Thorgas, the head Elder of the Warrior Clan. He's preparing to retire, and I have already taken on most of his duties within the city, as, unlike the Seer clan and their appointed successors, it's an inherited position."

Slug began slowly walking a circle around Zunim, who stumbled away from the wall, and warily eyed the lecturing Namekian.

"One of the departments under my direct jurisdiction is spaceport traffic. Nobody gets on or off this planet, legally anyway, without my knowing it. Are you starting to get my point?" He gestured towards the sky. "I can get you on any ship you want, sending you virtually anywhere. I am your only way off this planet. But I won't pardon your sins against me and do so for nothing. So I'll ask again," he stopped, and leaned forward, having Zunim once again between him and the wall. "Tell me about your fancy little aura."

Zunim pondered for a second.

"Anywhere."

"Just as I said."

"My crewmates too?"

"Why not?"

"No tricks."

"Tricks aren't very Namekian."

Zunim could have cited Slug's disguising himself at the smuggler's meeting, but decided it wasn't wise, and just sighed.

"Alright then," he said. "S'not like I've got anything to gain just by slumming around on this mud ball." He straightened up, and firmly faced Slug.

"You're right. I didn't invent it, and neither did any of the others from my gang. We're just a traveling band of mercenaries, who decided to detour away from the rest of our people's colony ship to make some cash. A while before we got to this planet, we ended up cruising along with a civilian convoy for a while, where we stocked up on supplies. While we were on one of the bigger ships, I met up with an old trader named Zaeteen. He's Metamoran."

"Metamoran? That odd, ancient race?" Slug was further intrigued. "The stories say their planet was wiped clean by some sort of immortal demon a few thousand years ago. They're supposed to be extinct."

"They practically are. The old man's the last surviving member of his family." Zunim continued. "Anyway, while I was trying to haggle for some supplies, he was robbed by some punk. That same one had given me a nasty look earlier, so I pounded on him. The old man was grateful, so in addition to a discount, he offered to teach me the technique. I wasn't stupid enough to refuse."

"I see. Interesting."

"Whatever. The colony was out in the Southern Galaxy when we came across it, but they were making good speed. This planet was supposed to be one of their stops eventually, so they'll probably end up here in another month or so. If you're lucky the Metamoran will still be with them."

"Very well. Anything else I should know?"

"No, that's all there is about it," Zunim said. "The old man did most of the work. I wouldn't know how to teach the technique to you. Now," he meekly remarked. "About your end of the bargain."

"Yes, well, about that," Slug moved closer to the Saiyan. "There's been a change of plans."

Zunim stared for a moment, letting it sink in. "You liar! No! I'll-mmph!"

He was interrupted, as Slug threw his arm out, and firmly clenched his hand around Zunim's face. Only the Saiyan's left eye, with his scar arcing across it from his forehead to his cheek, was visible, and wide-eyed with shock and rage. Slug reciprocated with a smug smile.

"You can feel it, can't you? What's left of your power slowly draining away? Well, this is thanks to a little technique of _mine_. Picked it up from a Rujian bounty hunter I apprehended a few months ago. Quite handy for submission of folks you don't want powering up and drawing undesired attention. Like yourself."

Slug brought his other hand up, and clenched the Saiyan's head from the other side.

"In fact, I've built up quite an impressive repertoire of interesting skills, all after witnessing them being used by the various scum I've put away over the years, and even the ones I've decided to kill." He let out a short cackle, before glaring right into the Saiyan's uncovered eye. "Guess which category YOU fall into!"

With that, he began to squeeze, the pressure increasing by the second. Zunim attempted to scream, but his muffled attempts only got quieter as the pain increased, and more and more power was drained from him.

"I might have been willing to just have you put away, at first, especially if you'd used and shown me that technique the first time we met, back at that meeting," Slug continued. "But not only were you selfish, but you just had to go and escape from me not once, but twice! And let me inform you, that really _PISSED ME OFF_."

The squeezing intensified drastically with those words, and Zunim found just enough strength left to make one more drastic attempt at a scream.

"So instead, you die," Slug casually remarked, though his face was twisted into an insane, sadistic sneer. "See you in Hell."

With that last bit, Slug put his full force into his grip, and Zunim's head popped like a grape. Blood-covered, squishy lumps of brains splattered outwards and oozed out onto Slug's hands. The Saiyan's body twitched violently for a few seconds, before going limp, and Slug allowed it to fall pathetically to the ground. He stared for a few moments at the Saiyan's compacted head, which now resembled an apple core in shape, but with the race's trademark wild hair still sticking up every which way. The lengths of it that weren't becoming soaked and weighted down with blood and gore, at least.

Slug then kicked his head back and laughed. It was an evil laughter, full of the twisted self-satisfaction that only a madman could draw out of such a horrendous and cruel deed. A few seconds, and he ceased the laughter with a sigh, though a contented smile remained on his face. He turned and began walking away, out towards the exit of the tunnel. After going only a few yards, without even looking back, he reached behind him with his left hand, and fired a fast, bright, twig-thin beam of energy out of his index finger. It hit it's mark, and the corpse was fragmented in a huge explosion, the pieces landing and continuing to crackle and burn.

And in the dim light it produced, he looked upwards, straight at Shio. She froze in outright fear, his menacing, psychotic leer piercing straight into her soul as he spoke.

"Hello."


	3. It's Not Easy Being Green

**DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM **

By Kaboom Krusader

Chapter Three - "_It's Not Easy Being Green"_

There had been a murder.

In a large city such as Makigai, such an occurrence usually would slip mostly under the radar as "unfortunate." After all, no society, regardless of how normally orderly and peaceful it was, was ever completely exempt from the occasional crime, especially with such a constant meshing and clashing of races and cultures as was present on a trade planet like Namek. Normally in the relatively rare cases of killings, the proud Namekian warrior forces would end up solving the case and apprehending the wrongdoer, either to prosecute by Namekian authority or ship them to their own worlds. However, in this case, the crime was of a more puzzling and personal nature. The victim was himself a Namekian warrior.

His name was Kagyu. Though you might not tell by his quiet, reserved, and pensive personality, he held quite a bold and proactive sense of justice. In fact, those two traits usually meshed splendidly together, if not in an odd manner. Frequently, he would end up singlehandedly solving major cases and seizing criminals without anyone knowing he was involved at all. He had a tendency to disappear for days at a time, likely tailing suspects, contacting informants, and doing general undercover work. Nobody would worry much about him during these periods, knowing he would likely soon return having accomplished some significant new feat.

This time, however, it had been a whole two standard weeks, with no word from him whatsoever. Small, reliable teams of other warriors had been sent out to discretely, yet thoroughly, comb the city and surrounding areas in search of him, hopefully to simply and quickly make contact and ensure that he was merely working on a case. But to their horror, such was not the case. Soon after the order had been issued, he was found.

A group of alien children had discovered and reported it. Kagyu's body had been dumped into a remote part of Makigai's canal draining systems, outside the borders of the island's main cliffsides. His face was permanently twisted into an expression of fear and desperation that was quite uncharacteristic of him, and it may have been due in part to what was surely the horrific cause of his death. Firstly, he had been impaled. A large, gaping hole had been punched into his back, right through the lower ribs. "Punched" was an accurate choice of words, as the shape and contours of the wound suggested it was physically dealt by a fist. It hadn't ended there, however. Not only the entrance wound, but the inside of his entire torso as well was charred black, and near completely hollowed out. Whoever had delivered the piercing blow had finished the job by discharging a great deal of ki while their forearm was submerged, flash-frying the hapless Namekian from the inside-out. A quick, but certainly excruciating death.

Now, Thorgas and Bosa were on the scene personally. The lifeless body had been retrieved from the canal, and a squad of warriors were keeping the crowds away as the two dealt with it. Thorgas was knelt down, wearing a solemn frown as he examined the lifeless shell of his former comrade and surrogate son. Bosa towered over on the opposite side, looking down and using a carved cane to support his bulky frame.

"Poor Kagyu," Bosa lamented, his normally jolly face sagging with dismay. "Who did you cross who would do this to you?"

"A better question," Thorgas quietly commented as he attempted to close Kagyu's eyes and mouth. "Is who _could_ do this to you?" He succeeded, and rested his hand on his knee, continuing to soberly analyze the body. "Kagyu, you were one of our proudest, most powerful and celebrated warriors... Few who ever come to this planet could contest with your skill and strength."

"Then," Bosa suggested, "We have need for considerable caution. Certainly a being not only powerful enough to compete with your top warriors, but so malicious as to carry out such horrible acts, should be dealt with quickly and decisively."

"Yes," Thorgas stood, continuing to sadly gaze upon the body. "Slug and I will personally see to this." He glanced at Bosa. "I suppose you'll need to do some public relations work about it now, as well."

"Of course, but..." Bosa went quiet, and motioned for Thorgas to follow out of earshot. The warrior nodded, signaled for one of his charges to guard the body, and followed Bosa over to the ledge of the canal, where the two could speak in private.

"This may complicate matters in regards to the festival," Bosa commented.

"Ah," Thorgas remarked, bringing one hand up to rub against his temple in agitation. "Of course, it will. As if I don't have enough to organize already..."

The Yearly Namekian "Moon Festival," as it was referred as to outsiders, was a large, annual event. Under claims that it was a "harvest celebration," and "only for Namekians," once every year, about halfway through the summer, all alien visitors and inhabitants were ushered off the planet. Traders were given gracious "pre-festival" deals, citizens living in Makigai were treated to luxurious temporary dwellings on a nearby colonized planet, and business owners were monetarily compensated for lost time and business. All in all, the city-goers were usually more than willing to go along with it thanks to the compensation, and didn't question it much.

Which was fortunate, because it was all a front.

While certainly a time of fellowship and celebration among the Namekians, it's true purpose was as a graduation ceremony for Dragon Clan students. This one day every year was the time when their long and hard labor would be brought to fruition. One after another, each would make use of their Dragon Balls, and summon their unique dragon. Each one was unique, a reflection of the work, energy, and spirit behind their creation. The dragons' appearances and powers were altogether a reflection, or some would even say an embodiment, of the student's very soul.

"Testing" the Dragon Balls in such a manner also had a more widespread, practical purpose. The dragons' natures and purpose were, after all, that of granting wishes. Through this ceremony, a great deal of requests were made for the benefit of all of Namek. Peace and prosperity, good harvests and firm alliances, and more all would "mysteriously" be showered upon the planet within the coming year.

Now the festival was approaching, with just over a week left. The timing for it was based on the orbits of Namek's satellites. The planet itself was somewhat odd in terms of its solar system. With two large moons constantly lumbering across the sky criss-crossing against the three suns, eclipses occurred several times a year, all at more or less the same times due to the uniform, constant rate at which the planet and its moons traveled. The festival was held about halfway through the year, at one point when the larger moon lined up with the closest sun, causing an eclipse that allowed for a rare and glimmering twilight across the entire hemisphere. As it floated along the surface of the planet, the Dragons were summoned under cover of it's twilight.

Naturally, such a massive gathering of such powerful and reality-altering forces would be easy to exploit, and potentially dangerous if if any Dragon Balls were to fall into the wrong hands. It was for this reason that all effort was taken to keep not only the true nature of the festival, but also the existence of the Dragon Clan and their work, a secret from outsiders. It was a matter of fact, not haughty opinion, that the Namekian race was nearly unparalleled in its natural sense of purity and nobility. Keeping use of Dragon Balls strictly within Namekian limits was the only sure way to avoid disaster.

Each head of the three different clans had their own duties to perform in preparation for the event. Bosa worked with the various emigrant aliens to reimburse them for their time and inconvenience, and Thorgas and his warriors policed the actual relocation process. Katatz, the elder of the Dragon Clan, worked with his students, making final preparations with them for their graduation and helping determine what wishes were to be made.

"Might we be able to wish him back?" Bosa suggested. "It would certainly help shed some light on the circumstances of his death."

"I suppose we could. Surely one of the advanced students' dragons would be capable, or one of Katatz'. However," Thorgas replied, "It would present another couple problems." He motioned to the curious and growing crowd. "For one, there have already been a good deal of witnesses. Not to his death, but a considerable crowd had already gathered around the body by the time we got here, and who knows how many have since left and begun to spread the news?"

"Ah, of course. If he were to be miraculously alive again when the people returned, it would raise questions impossible to truthfully answer." He reached a hand up to stroke his plump chin. "Another wish might be made to erase their memories, but that would likely raise even more suspicion in the end..."

"As much as it pains me to think so, it simply may not be an option," The two walked back over to the body, and Thorgas knelt down once again and laid a hand on it. "Kagyu, I'm sorry," he whispered. "You must remain in the next world, and I pray for your happiness there. But I swear I will find your killer, and send him on his own way myself..."

* * *

Not too far off, a certain white-haired bounty huntress was trying her best to blend in. Shio tried her best to keep her movements subtle, slowly weaving through the small crowd and trying to get a better look. As soon as she gained a clearer, she stopped dead in her tracks, and wisely backed up another couple feet. She'd seen what all the commotion was about, and her fears had been confirmed. Laying out in the small grassy clearing was the body. Considering its charred, mangled form, Shio was glad she hadn't witnessed the actual murder.

Almost as unsettling was one of the two figures attending and examining the body. She recognized them as Namek's elders, the tall, burly, scarred one was the Warrior, and the plump, large, and normally jolly one, the Ambassador. It was the former's sight she made sure to avoid. It wasn't as if she'd committed the murder. But she HAD been at the bar yesterday, and Sir Thorgas had seen her face. Now she had seen his, and she could tell that underneath the despair and sadness, he was _pissed_. Understandably so, as the warriors were a very close-knit group. Having one of your beloved subjects brutally murdered would enrage anyone. Namekian Warriors were also already formidable enough when they were calm and pensive. Facing down their patriarch when he was angered would be veritable suicide.

That said, if he managed to carry out a successful investigation, and discovered the _real_ killer... That would create shock waves that Shio definitely wanted to avoid getting caught in. It was absolutely necessary that she keep herself out of the picture, and hope her new partner could do the same long enough for their plan to go through. But even then, the road was just as dangerous as the destination in this case.

* * *

"_I remember your face," Slug commented, as he continued to leer at her. "You were at the tavern this afternoon. You're a bounty hunter. Sodian, like the servant girl. Tailing the Saiyan looking for some payback, eh?" _

"_..."_

"_Seems all you managed to accomplish was becoming a witness," he grinned. "And therefore, a liability. What a pity." Shio jumped down from the pipework, and stood up from her landing to continue glaring at him. "Not even trying to flee, I take it? Smart." He raised a hand, and energy began to crackle in his fingertips._

"_Any last words?"_

"_Yes... Let's make a deal."_

* * *

She shuddered at the thought of it. Her "partner," Slug. Witnessing not only his brutal acts themselves, but the obsessed and even darkly gleeful manner in which he'd done them, sent a shiver down his spine. His true character was clear to Shio. He put up a good front in his daily routine, but underneath, he was sinister and vicious. Namekians were normally a peaceful race by nature, but something was different about Slug. He had a thirst for blood and a deeply hidden greed that was unparalleled by just about any other slime-bag creature Shio had met. But here she was, having made a deal with this devil.

* * *

"_...And what exactly..." He said. "Makes you think you could offer me anything, or that I'd even bother? Didn't you just see," he thumbed back towards the Saiyan's smoldering remains. "What happened to the last one to deal with me?"_

_Shio swallowed, trying her best not to show any fear. She spoke again, sincerely hoping she was right about him._

"_I can offer you an __**excuse**__."_

* * *

She started slowly making her way out of the crowd, and back towards central Makigai. She just had to hold out until tomorrow, and then it would all come to fruition. Her time, her blood, her sweat, her tears, her eight long years of dedication would pay off.

But she couldn't help but wonder what would happen _AFTER_ that. Would they get away with it? On second thought, Slug certainly wouldn't. But perhaps the authorities would see her actions as justifiable. But then, would Slug feel the same way? She'd been purposely vague to make sure he'd agree with her. But with an attitude like his, he certainly wouldn't like the results on her end when she was finished. There was a slight chance she wouldn't make it out of this partnership alive. No, considering what had happened to the Saiyan and the other warrior, it was almost guaranteed she'd end up dead.

Nobody else knew, or would know for a long time, but Shio had been a first-hand witness. He'd done this. Slaughtered one of his fellow warriors in cold blood, mere minutes after doing the same to that Saiyan. For all the sneaking around Shio had been doing, she hadn't realized she was being tailed as well. The stealthy new Namekian had been lurking behind her for who knows how long, and she'd never even noticed him. No sounds, no sights, no buzz of her battle power meter, nothing. But it seemed for all his skills, they were useless against Slug. Mere seconds after Shio had made her pitch, he was discovered...

* * *

"_...Because I can tell you're not satisfied. You want better than this world and your place within it. You just need an opportunity to do something about it. If you work with me, we can seize that opportunity."_

_Slug stood motionless for a moment, his brow furrowed in what may have been disbelief. He then burst into the same perverse laughter as he'd displayed after murdering the Saiyan._

"_Ahahahaha! Look at this!" His face curled into a wide sneer. "I love it when they try to bargain! Opportunity? Bulls**t, with power like mine, I need nothing from any of you clever little scum. Nor do I owe you anything! Now," he raised his hand again, and it grew a bright red. "Time to die..."_

"_... Dragon Balls."_

* * *

She casually made her way up and through the bustling spaceport, trying hard to keep her face from reflecting the inner dread and disgust she was feeling. The large port was built in and around the Makigai Island's largest peak itself, with various launch sites carved out of the very rock. All around her, people of all kinds of strange alien races were shopping, rushing to various air or space craft, waiting for others, or just generally mingling. The fact that the Namekian festival was approaching only added to the hustle and bustle, with multitudes of "pre-festival blowout" sales going on, snagging the hurried passersby in some sort of interplanetary tourist trap.

Finally, she escaped the crowded mess, and entered the area where various smaller ships were docked. The flow of people significantly subsided as she made her way towards the outer branches of the cliffs, where her designated hangar was found. At long last, she found the entrance, and after she leaned down to use the retinal scanner, she was granted access. Never before was she so relieved to see the humble, spherical little freighter that was her transportation throughout the stars. For a while, she hadn't expected to ever be within it again, alive.

* * *

_He stopped, and his eyes widened in genuine surprise. His hand lowered, and he spoke again._

"_What did you say?"_

"_The Dragon Balls," Shio repeated. "I know about them. Most people only think they're a myth, but I know for sure. I observed them all being used this time last year. I know how they can generate anything their user wants."_

"_Well, it's a bit more complicated than that," He grinned. "But you've certainly done your homework." He folded his arms. "Go on."_

"_I want... no, I **need** to use them. If you were to help me do so, it would present a chance for you to do so as well. I'm sure you don't get to use them very often, much less for whatever it is you REALLY want."_

"_What I REALLY want, you say?" He responded. "Honestly, what do you think you know about me?"_

"_I've been trailing you for a while. I've watched you go about your normal duties on this world." Shio was on a roll. "I've seen how you dread the monotony of it, but then how excited you get whenever action presents itself. I can tell how you were born to be superior. To grow higher. To rule instead of be ruled."_

"_I see..."_

"_The truth is, I don't know specifically WHAT it is you'd grant yourself, nor is it really my business." She clenched a fist and smiled. "But I can easily tell, you'd KILL for the opportunity."_

_Slug continued to stare for a moment, and Shio cautiously returned to a ready stance. Damn. Had it failed? She had to be prepared to flee. Even if it would end up useless, she'd at least try. She might be able to make it back out the tunnel, so there'd be more potential witnesses. At the very least, he'd then be much more likely to be discovered..._

"_Sure."_

* * *

Shio shut and locked the ship's main entrance hatch behind her, and began unfastening the straps on her breastplate. She took flight and casually floated up the main access shaft into the main living area, lightly tossing the piece of armor onto the floor when she reached the top. She landed on the cold polysteel floor, walked into the modest little bathroom on the far end, and pressed a single button on the wall that started the bathtub up to fill itself with a prepared reservoir of hot water.

She stood there and waited for a minute, spacing out as she slowly removed the rest of her garments and watched the tub steadily fill up. She noticed then for the first time that her hands were shaking. Was it the cold? Not entirely. It was obviously shock and disbelief. That she was on the verge of having her goals met. That she had made a deal with that unholy beast of a Namekian. She had actually succeeded, instead of being brutally killed like the Saiyan and the other Namekian.

But there was little time for relief. This was only the first step.

* * *

_She blinked in surprise._

"_Why not?" He unfolded his arms. He returned one to his side, and extended the other's hand out to her. "We have a deal."_

_Knowing better than to refuse him anything, Shio clasped his hand shook it. She flinched a bit at his powerful grip, which he noticed and chuckled._

"_Ahaha, don't worry. Despite what just happened to our hairy friend back there," he nodded his head in the direction of the Saiyan's now smoking chunks. "I mean it this time. We DO have a deal. This should be fun."_

_They released each other's hands, and Slug walked past her towards the exit of the tunnel._

"_In fact, to make it more fun," he turned his head back to look at her. "Leave the preparation to me. We'll do it a week from today, on the night of the festival, when everyone else is using their own Dragon Balls. I'll come up with a plan and contact you about it sometime before then. Just go about your business as usual, and don't seek me out again. I can and will find you."_

_He stopped, and turned completely around. "Oh, and by the way, I don't know for sure whether you've got any other partners in this. But if you do, drop them, and tell them nothing. This will remain strictly between the two of us." He grinned, and looked upwards at a section of pipework above Shio's head. "And just to make sure of that..."_

_Slug suddenly raised a hand, and fired a powerful shot of energy at the area. Shio jumped out of the way barely in time to avoid the explosion. So did, apparently, another figure. It jumped down from the ceiling, rolled a couple times, then cartwheeled into a standing ready stance. His newly-tattered and burned cloak revealed it to be another Namekian warrior. He quietly spoke, a tensed and concerned expression on his face._

"_Slug... I can't believe you..."_

"_Neither can I, Kagyu. I thought you'd be smarter than to track me. Seems like it's a growing trend." Slug cracked his knuckles, and confidently marched towards the other warrior, addressing Shio one last time as he walked._

"_Now would be a good time to depart," he said. "Unless, of course, you'd prefer to stay and watch..."_

_She didn't._

* * *

Shio stood there for another moment, even after the water had finished. She was afraid, no doubt. But, she reasoned in her head, there was no point in dwelling on that fear. Last resorts were frightening, but they were also when the absolute most dedication and bravery where needed.

She stripped off the last remaining undergarments, and tied up her long, characteristically-silver Sodian hair, before slowly stepping into the tub. She laid down, submerging her entire slender, athletic form up to her chin, and breathed a deep sigh.

This was crunch time, and she had to be prepared for it. She had to be brave, and push forward even in the face of an almost certain dead end. It was what needed to be done.

It's what _he _would have done.

* * *

Meanwhile, deep in the very same sector of the under-city, an unwashed, pitiable bunch was lounging around in an alley, ravenously devouring the share of rations they'd stolen. Scraggy and bored, the four of them were trying their best not to cause trouble and raise attention. Which, for Saiyans, was like expecting fire not to be hot.

"This sucks," one of them commented, while gnawing at a piece of some type of dried meat. His name was Beat, and he was the very definition of "trouble" among the group, often rushing headfirst into dangerous or unsure situations. Fortunately, he was a good and strong enough fighter to usually survive them. He had a lean, speedy build, hair that was flat against his scalp on the sides but then spiked upward and outward in every angle on top, and a sharp, streamlined face that wore a sour grimace just as often as a devious grin. At this moment, it sported the former.

His attitude was quickly noticed and addressed by one of his compatriots, namely his mate, Kale. The token female fighter of the group, she had a toned, tomboyish figure, and this combined with the loose clothing she typically wore often caused her otherwise acute feminine aspects to go unnoticed. Her hair was wild and arced on top and to the sides, with her brow hidden by sizable bangs. They say opposites attract, and that was certainly true with her. Cool, calculating, and clever, she was often the only one with enough common sense to get the group out of tight spots, especially Beat. Trying her best to do so now, she spoke up and scolded him.

"Oh, shut up. Be grateful we have any food at all." She turned to the one seated behind her. "Hey, give me another piece."

The quiet giant named Barus nodded as he reached into the gallon-sized drum that contained the meat, and gingerly placed another morsel into Kale's waiting hand. He had a very brawny face, adorned with wild hair that spiked forward and back onto his neck. Despite that and his tall and muscular build, he was unusually peaceful and quiet for a Saiyan. He had a tendency to only let loose and become emotional when in battle, but upon doing so, his impressive anger-fueled strength had proven to be a lifesaver on many occasions.

"I don't mean the food," Beat snapped, biting into his piece again. "As crappy as it is. I mean I hate being stuck like this. Can't go anywhere, do anything... I don't do the whole 'laying low' thing well."

"That's EXACTLY why I'm not letting you go anywhere," Kale sternly commented as she chewed. "You'd get us exposed and killed within a day. Hell, I'd give you an hour, actually."

"He's right sometimes, y'know. Hey, Barus, let me have one more, too," another remarked. Kob was Barus' heavyset older brother. In contrast to his stoic sibling, he was loud and unruly. His chewing was equally obnoxious, and he made little to no effort to contain the noise as he ground up the meat between his girthy cheeks. He made his tenth attempt that minute to brush back the couple of strands of hair that hung down onto his face, but like usual, they wouldn't stay put with the rest of it hanging down onto his back. Dealing with it, he continued to munch and complain.

"I tell ya, I'd rather be out there dyin' than just sitting around. At least dying isn't boring."

"Out of all people," Beat snipped. "I thought YOUR fat ass would be the most grateful for an opportunity for laziness."

"Yeah, I'm fat. But that's where my strength is, you know."

"Yeah, whatever."

"I'm serious."

"Sure you are."

"You wanna find out?"

"Gotta catch me first... if you can."

"Knock it off you two," Kale jumped in yet again. "You're just wasting energy. We can't move until Pinach returns and we know what's g-"

"I'm back."

"Graaah!" Kob and Beat both recoiled in surprise at their compatriot's sudden appearance. Kale flinched slightly, but Barus had detected his presence already, and only slightly smiled in amusement at the others' expressions.

Pinach descended from the high alley ledge he'd apparently been perched on, rebounding off the wall a few times before landing on the ground and standing. He was the youngest of the group, and had a thin, sleek frame and a boyish looking face, the right side of which was mostly covered by a generous amount of pitch-black hair, with the rest arcing upwards and back. None of the others had ever seen his right eye, if he even had one. His expression was usually a solemn, contemplative scowl, and rarely ever changed, making it hard for his crewmates to ever guess what he was thinking.

Pinach was a hunter. His senses and intuition were top-notch, and when the crew took on bounty-hunting jobs, the easiest course was usually to just let Pinach track them. He usually dressed head-to-toe in dark cloaks, in order to conceal himself in his sneaking, but they were loose enough for him to cut loose and throw down when his target put up any resistance.

He walked into the circle of Saiyans, and took a seat on a box between Kale and Beat. He accepted a piece of meat that Barus had ready and extended to him, and with the other hand, casually tossed some sort of small garment onto the floor in the midst of them. Curious, Beat picked it up, examined it for a moment in silence, then held it up and addressed Pinach.

"...The hell is this?"

"An armband," the younger Saiyan muttered between bites.

"Well, I can see _that_, dingus," Beat snapped. "But why do you have it? Who's is it?"

"Give me that," Kale demanded, as she reached across and snatched it from Beat's grasp. She also studied it intently for a few seconds before speaking again. "It looks familiar somehow."

Barus, of all people, was the first to realize it. "It's Zunim's," he said.

Kale's eyes widened and her head whipped around to face Pinach. "Zunim? You found him?"

"Sort of."

"Whaddya mean 'sort of?' Where is he?" It was Kob's turn to handle the item, as he wiggled his pudgy arm, successfully coaxing Kale to toss it to him. He leaned in and took a sniff of it. "Geez," he commented. "It smells like blood." He did so again. "...Burnt blood?"

"Yes," Pinach replied somberly. "That was all I could salvage."

"The hell?" Beat snapped. He snatched the cloth back from Kob, and stared at it wide-eyed for a moment before turning back to Pinach. "You mean Zunim's dead?"

"What else could he mean?" Kale yelled, before pausing and rubbing her temple. "For crying out loud... Doesn't take a genius to guess who did it."

Pinach nodded. "Yes. The Namekian Warrior, Slug."

"Damn it." Hunched forward, Beat stared down at the cloth. "Damn it. Damn it!"

"I had finally tracked down Zunim," Pinach explained. "But I also suspected the Namekian would be hunting him, too."

"Of course he would be," Kale said. "We all saw him, when he beat us down in the bar. The look in his eyes..." She folded her arms in worry. "He was crazy. You could tell he was obsessed with going after Zunim. I don't know what that bonehead did, but somehow it became personal." She shook her head. "If he wasn't so focused on him though, the rest of us probably wouldn't have been able to escape..."

"Damn it..."

"As it turns out," Pinach continued. "It wasn't just the two of us hunting him. There was some mercenary woman tracking Zunim, too, and I suspect Slug himself was being trailed as well. So I kept my distance, looking for a safe opportunity to approach Zunim and warn him. Unfortunately," he lamented. "It never came."

"Doomed from the start?" Kob asked.

"It would seem so. They entered an enclosed area I couldn't safely follow. Four of them total. Zunim, Slug, the woman, and what I assume was another Namekian." He paused. "I waited, and only the woman, and Slug soon after, left."

"Damn it."

"I eventually entered the small tunnel to look. There was Namekian and Saiyan blood all over. The Namekian's body was nowhere to be found. But according to reports I've overheard, it was retrieved from the outer city's irrigation canals. Zunim, however, was nothing more than charred pieces. All I could recover that was recognizable was his wristband. I decided not to include what was left of the arm it was wrapped around."

"That's pretty brutal," Kob commented. "Even by Saiyan standards. I thought these Namekians were supposed to be all pure and noble?"

"It looks like our friend Slug is an exception," Kale remarked with just a smidgen of sarcasm.

"So what now?" Kob heaved himself forward from his lounging position, and rested his elbow on his knee. "Is he gonna come after us?"

"Doubtful, with how little attention he gave us from the start compared to Zunim," Pinach speculated. "And now, I think he may have more important things in mind."

"What do you mean?"

"...Don't know. Gut feeling."

"Well THAT'S promising," Kob snipped. "I'd hope you'd have a better answer than that."

"I might have," Pinach retorted. "But I'm not going to risk following him too closely."

"Either way, we should assume he DOES have it out for us, too," Kale put in. "He got pissed at Zunim for escaping him. We've done the same thing now. We should do our best to avoid him, and get off this planet before..."

"No."

All eyes turned to Beat, who continued to stare at the tattered cloth.

"We're not running away."

"Are you nuts?" Kale turned to him, perturbed. "And who decided you were leader?"

"Leader or no leader," he said. "That Namekian bastard won't get away with this." He squeezed the cloth in his hand. "We're going to kill him."

"And how," Kale responded, "do you think we should do that, hmm?"

"I don't know. You're the smart one," he said. "You figure it out."

"Oh, you think I haven't tried?" She stood, and waved an arm to nowhere in particular. "No matter what way you approach it from, we have no kind of advantage at all. The beast was strong enough to handle all five of us AND Zunim at once. Zunim, the strongest of us, was killed easily! We can't even bide our time and wait for a full moon, because the planet has no night!" She pointed a finger. "You think we're all just as hotheaded and impulsive as you! You want us to all rush into some stupid suicide mission so you can..."

Beat sharply stood to face her, and practically screamed.

"DON'T YOU HAVE ANY PRIDE AT ALL?"

All were taken aback. Beat's tail came uncurled from around his waist, and its hair stood on end as it twitched wildly. His face was contorted into a vicious, desperate grimace, and his teeth grated as he spoke.

"Look at you!" Beat indicated all of them. "You get beaten down _one_ time, and you think that's it? It's over?" He spit off to one side. "Feh! Some Saiyans we are! You know what I think? I think we've gotten so lax, so used to our simple, menial life of boredom and useless so-called jobs, that we've forgotten what we're really about!"

He spread his arms outward, and his scowl abruptly turned into a menacing grin. "We're Saiyans! What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger! We've forgotten that, we've gotten out of touch with our true instincts, and that's why we lost!" He clenched both fist out in front of him. "But not anymore. We're going to do what we do best. Persevere and grow. So what if we can't get any Bruitz Waves? So what if this green freak is stronger than us now? That won't stop us. If we have to, we'll keep going at him again and again. Even if we lose, we'll let ourselves heal, gain power each time, and keep going back."

He gestured to his team mates. "Who's with me? We'll do it one way or another! For Zunim, and for our pride! Even if we die, we'll die like true Saiyans!"

For a long moment, all were silent, somewhat stunned at Beat's surprising sense of motivation. Finally, one of them spoke.

"Y'know what?" Kob said. "I think we've got ourselves a new leader after all." He clenched a fist. "I'm in. Like I said, anything's better than just sitting around." Beat only folded his arms in response, and glanced at Kale.

"I don't know..." She was still hesitant.

"I... agree with Beat," Barus commented.

Kale turned to him, raising an eyebrow. "Even you want to go along with this?"

Barus smiled slightly and nodded. "I would like to avenge Zunim, at the very least..."

She sighed, "sure, I suppose. Pinach, what about you?"

The pensive Saiyan nodded, looking off into the distance as if deep in thought. "Of course," he replied. "But, so long as everyone's in... we MAY have a better option than Beat's vicious cycle. A chance for a plan. One without such a high risk of death."

Beat, a bit surprised, pressed him for more. "A plan? What would that be?"

Pinach clasped his hands together. "We become apes," he stated. "We should be plenty strong enough to defeat him then, so long as nobody has gotten rusty with their control."

"Um, hello," Kale retorted. "Three suns and no night means no full moons, remember?"

"Yeah, man," Kob mentioned. "You hiding a sieve for your brains under that hair?"

"I know," he answered. "But soon, we may have something after all. It will be a small window, but if we're clever enough about it..." He stood, and began walking away. "I need to do some research. But if I'm right..." He turned his head to face them, and cracked a small, normally uncharacteristic smile. "He'll be dead in minutes."

"Alright then, Pinach," Beat nodded. "Do what you've gotta do. Don't let us down."

He turned around, and raised a hand in acknowledgment.

"I never do." With that, he zipped out of sight up into the rooftops.

"I gotta say, good job, Beat," Kob said, standing himself up with less difficulty then normal. "It's been a LONG time since my blood has been boiling this much." He gave Barus a casual jab on the shoulder. "How 'bout it, bro?"

The large-statured Saiyan didn't even flinch, and continued to smile.

"Yes..."

"I admit, I'm excited too," Kale finally admitted. "I'd like to actually feel satisfied with doing something worthwhile."

Zunim leaned towards her with a sly grin. "Why not start with me?"

She chuckled mockingly. "What, you became the new leader just two minutes ago, and you're developing an alpha male complex already?" She playfully punched him in the head. "Knock it off."

"Make me."

"You're a lousy mate."

"You're a lousier strategist. How come Pinach is the one coming up with all the good plans?"

"Good point. Maybe I should go be HIS mate instead."

"No you shouldn't," he replied, and he bodily picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, prompting a yelp from her. "And I've got one big reason why."

"Your hair?"

"Not quite," he answered, as the two disappeared around a back corner of the alley.

Kob and Barus stood there quietly for a moment. Eventually, Kob popped the case of dried meat back open.

"Let's finish this up before they get back."


	4. For Every Action

**DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM**

By Kaboom Krusader

Chapter Four - _"For Every Action..."_

Planet Namek's position among the heavens was an odd one. It was part of a trinary star system, which was uncommon enough in itself. But normally, such a system consisted of some combination of one or more planets orbiting the multiple suns, which in turn often orbited each other. Namek, however, was unique. The stars orbited the planet, or at least, that's how it appeared at first glance. Planet Namek hung suspended in the middle, the pull from the three stars rendering it totally motionless save for it spinning on its own axis with its own pair of moons arcing gently around it.

The days and months were still measured by the suns' movements, though mostly in their relative positions to each other rather than their arc across the sky. But because of this odd astronomical arrangement, there was no such thing as "night" on Namek, only brief, recurring periods of the day during which the skies were slightly brighter or dimmer than others.

But today, the sky was uniformly dark, and only the Namekian people knew why.

To the public, there only existed three major groups in Namekian society. First and foremost was the Seer Clan, with Bosa at its head. They were the peacemakers, the politicians. Matters of diplomacy and government were their specialty, and the wise and kind elders were seemingly bred for it. Then there were the Warriors. They were the peace-_keepers _and the police force. They kept a dedicated and constant watch over the planet, protecting its citizens, Namekians and aliens alike. They were set apart from others, because they truly _were _born and bred for such a purpose. In stature and power, across the board, Warriors were worlds apart from other Namekians. Then, there were ordinary citizens. Farmers, businessmen, workers, and the like. Born for any specific purpose or not, they led their own lives. But, there was one more class: The Dragon Clan.

To the rest of known civilization, they were nothing more than whispered rumors and subjects of fantastic old stories. The gossip told of a third sect of the Namekian special orders, ones with a mystical secret, holding some sort of great significance that the Namekian race held dear. The rumors were completely right. The Dragon Clan was a powerful and important part of Namekian heritage, yet it was kept hidden away from the rest of interplanetary society. Promising Namekian children were taught from a young age how to create and bring life to the heirlooms known as Dragon Balls.

Always in a set of seven, the balls themselves were a gateway for the Dragon they heralded. The method of learning their creation was a long one, requiring constant, strict, and extensive meditation exercises from students. Everyone's dragon was different in appearance, and it was up to the student to give it its form. Nobody knew for certain what the nature of the dragons was. Where they heralded from, or if they were even already in existence before being "created," were facts ultimately unknown even to the most insightful Namekian scholars in history. All that was for certain was that with the right training, the proper form of the Dragon would come to the student on its own, as if by divine revelation. It was at that point that the connection was made.

Thereafter, the student gave the dragon's form a physical representation. Namek's purest, richest clays were molded into the shape of the dragon by the student, who formed it calmly and naturally, as if in a trance. At the same time, the group of seven spheres that would become the Dragon Balls themselves was crafted out of stone, and when the creator infused the dragon with his own energy, a bond was formed between all three. The creator was linked to the Dragon Balls. The Dragon Balls were a beacon to the Dragon. The Dragon derived its power from the creator. It was a cycle that became second nature to members of the Dragon Clan.

But if one were to think the mere creation of the Dragon Balls was a marvelous feat, then to witness their actual use would surpass all their expectations. When the Dragon was summoned, it appeared in a spectacular fashion, taking form from a brilliant pillar of light. In contrast, the entire sky of the planet was cast in a deep, ethereal shadow.

All the Namekians, from the civilian farmers and workers, to the warriors, to the Dragon Clan students, to the elders who oversaw the ceremony, understood these phenomena well, and they appreciated the miraculous nature of them. They were a central part of their life, their culture.

But, to any non-native of the planet, the darkness would certainly be a confusing and bewildering sight.

"What the hell is this?"

Some distance away from Makigai, a confused and bewildered Saiyan gazed out over the landscape. He had just emerged from a small, inconspicuous cave on the side of a cliff, off on an outlying island, within which he had been captivated in a rather deep and unnatural nap. He had awoken just moments ago, expecting to be greeted by a dark sky... But not _this_ dark. Rather than the dim evening-like shadows he'd expected, Beat was greeted by a uniformly pitch-black sky, which was distinctly lacking in eclipses and natural satellites.

"Where... _where's the damn moons_?" Beat's heart rate skyrocketed, and his legs wobbled in protest, prompting him to sit down cross-legged on the rock ledge and take a deep breath. He looked out on the whole unwelcome situation and scowled. Whatever was going on, it was seriously screwing up the plan.

* * *

_"__You've GOT to be kidding me!__"_

_ "__No, I'm not,__"__ Pinach replied. __"__This was the best plan I could come up with.__"_

_ "__You disappear for FOUR days with no word at all,__"__ Beat protested, __"__and now you magically show back up saying you're going to put us all into a COMA?__"_

_Kale reached over and slapped her overly-agitated mate across the back of his head._

_ "__Shut up and let him talk.__"_

_"Thanks," Pinach replied, reaching into the bag he carried and beginning to pull out the several devices it contained. They were small medical instruments, each looking like some sort of metal cuff with a few extra fixtures installed on it. He tossed one to each of his present compatriots, who all looked them over curiously as he explained._

_ "__They're injection devices. Custom modified for what we're going to use them for.__"__ He motioned to the ring. __"__They go around our upper arm. On the inside of the cuff, there are needles.__"_

_Kale shivered a bit. __"__I don't like needles...__"__ she lamented._

_ "__They're small. You can hardly even feel them. Now,__"__ Pinach continued. __"__There are two substances that get injected. The first is a drug called Jaracite. It's a powerful suppressant that actually induces a coma.__"_

_ "__Wonderful,__"__ Kob remarked. __"__I've always wondered what it feels like to be dead.__"_

_ "__So what's the point to this again?__"__ Beat inquired, his arms crossed sternly._

_ "__The point being that when we're in this state,__"__ Pinach continued, as he brought the thumb and index finger of his free hand close together, __"__it will cause our energy to shrink to a minuscule level.__"_

_ "__Aha,__"__ Kale commented. __"__I see where this is going.__"_

_Kob nodded. __"__That's right. These Namekian warriors can somehow sense it on their own. No matter how good of a hiding spot we found, they'd be able to track us.__"_

_ "__Which they won't be able to do once we're indistinguishable from the planet's wildlife. Now, this is just half of what the device does. There's also a timer built in which can be set to inject the antidote after a certain amount of time, waking the user up.__"_

_ "__Are you sure these things are safe?__"__ Kale wasn't quite convinced._

_ "As safe as anything of this nature can be," Pinach assured her. "There have been reports of Arlians having fatal reactions to the _antidote_, but nothing aside from that."_

_ "I'm not sure there's much that __**doesn't**__ kill Arlians," Kob quipped._

_Barus piped in. __"__How did you get these?__"_

_ "__Persistence, and a good amount of snooping,__"__ Pinach responded. __"__As you might guess, devices like these are quite illegal. Once I found a dealer, he was actually eager to hand them off. He said it would be a pain to get them through customs during the evacuation.__"_

_ "__So we use these to stay on the planet. Then what?__"_

_ "__It gets simpler. We transform, make a beeline for Slug, and beat him.__"_

_ "__... Try that again?__"_

_Pinach knelt down and began drawing out a diagram in the dirt consisting of several circles, obviously meant to represent Planet Namek and its various suns and satellites._

_"I did a good amount of research, and I found out exactly what's going to be happening with this eclipse," he remarked. "This is Namek in the middle here. At this time every year, the suns end up in a certain strange pattern. The farthest one is completely eclipsed by the larger of the two moons. Their orbits actually match up for an entire day, casting the entire hemisphere below them in a warm, evening-like twilight, while the other two suns cruise along on the opposite side of the planet."_

_He drew little circles to represent the moon and sun's orbit. _

_ "__During this event, the other moon should not only be clearly visible, but brightly illuminated, putting out more than enough Bruitz Waves for us. The eclipse itself may put out even more.__"_

_A smile crept onto Beat's face._

_ "__Excellent.__"_

_A few hours later, Beat's quest for a good hiding spot finally led him to a small cave, situated in the side of a cliff on an island a good half-dozen miles from the city. The group had decided to split up and scout out separate locations. Even with their ki shrunk, there was still a slim chance of being discovered, and better it only be one or two of them than all five. Satisfied with this locale, Beat ducked down inside, taking note of a small family of tiny, beaked, bat-like animals who were hanging upside-down from some roots and eying him curiously._

_Beat reached the back end of the cave and lay down, then glanced at the tiny creatures._

_ "__If I wake up to find that any of you little bastards have pecked off my ear or something, I'll personally scour the entire planet and make you all extinct.__"_

_With that, he turned over to face the wall, pressed a single button on the device fixed to his arm, and drifted off to sleep._

* * *

Shio couldn't help but notice how odd the city felt when it was empty. This creepy darkness cast over the entire landscape only added to the uneasiness. With how fast she was moving to keep up with Slug, though, she couldn't really take in much of the sights. While the festivities were happening off over the horizon, she and the monstrous Namekian were swiftly moving their way through the inner parts of Makigai. With their ki suppressed, they couldn't fly, and were thus traveling by running down within the streets and making swift leaps onto and across rooftops. Shio wasn't used to this, so it was hard enough for her to concentrate as it was.

They came to an intersection, where Slug stopped suddenly, and Shio followed suit. From here, it was finally visible. The capitol tower loomed above the city, and further down the street, the entrance to the Ajissa Gardens that surrounded it was waiting.

"Ready to climb?" Slug inquired. She nodded in response, and the two took off again. They bounded down the street and took a flying leap over the wall. They landed just shy of, then darted around, the large fountain that decorated the main walkway. This they transversed, crossing the short bridge that arced over a modest river running through the garden, and at last they came to the large main doors.

Shio glanced around.

"How are we getting in?" She asked.

"Not here," Slug replied, looking upwards. He darted over to the right, coming over to one of a series of small, bulbous structures that surrounded the main tower. Each one was mushroom-like in appearance, and they were connected in sequence by steadily inclining tunnel walkways to each other and then into the main building at about just over the structure's halfway mark. Shio followed, and the two sprung across the suspended passages, eventually balancing on top of the last tunnel. Directly across from them, protruding from the back side of the tower and also suspended by a stalk-like support, was the Elders' platform which contained and served as a launch and landing pad for their own private space ships.

This platform was evidently their next destination, as Slug crouched down at an angle and pushed himself off into a flying leap at it. He arced across and landed solidly on the level surface, then stood, turned around, and motioned for Shio to follow.

Shio swallowed hard, a little nervous about this one. One gained a whole new respect for gravity once they weren't allowed to defy it anymore. Nevertheless, she was confident. She too crouched down and launched herself in the platform's direction. She soared over, hundreds of feet above the forested ground, and despite her more appropriate build, she wasn't quite skilled enough to make an equally impressive landing. She had to roll once and ended up stopping on one knee.

By the time she righted herself, Slug was already moving again. He briskly walked up a sloping ramp towards a door leading into the main structure. He looked upwards, focusing in the direction of the upper floors, and then turned to Shio.

"Concentrate," he commanded. "There's a single ki up there. Can you detect him?"

* * *

_She'd never detected him coming._

_There she'd been, lying in the bath, finally starting to really relax after her nerve-wracking experience from earlier in the day. She'd been in that same spot for several hours, and for not a single second of them had she regretted spending some extra cash to get the self-reheating model tub. She'd had her head reclined and eyes closed for at least the past ten minutes, and she was just starting to drift off to sleep... when suddenly his voice resonated through the washroom._

_ "__Comfortable, are we?__"_

_Her eyes darted open, and her vision whipped around to see Slug, standing there against the doorway and wearing a sly smirk on his face. Shio panicked, quickly standing up in the shower, and after almost slipping and falling, going into a defensive stance. A split second after this, her nervous system promptly reminded her that she wasn't wearing anything, and her face became flushed as she swiftly attempted to cover her sensitive bits. Slug laughed in amusement._

_ "__Don't worry,__"__ he chuckled. __"__Fortunately for you, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it,__"__ he remarked. __"__There are many ways in which I'm distinctly un-Namekian. But having a sense of sexuality isn't one of them. We don't even possess the 'hardware' for it, if you will.__"_

_ "__...__"_

_ "But if it will make you feel better, then by all means get dressed," Slug suggested. "And be quick about it. We've got work to do."_

_ "__You've come up with a plan already...?__"__ Shio meekly inquired as she began to re-don her loose clothing, simultaneously rummaging through the pile on the floor looking for something._

_ "__It's still in the works,__"__ Slug answered. __"__But there's one key part of it that we need to start preparing for now.__"__ Slug noticed what she had been looking for and had now found: a small, round electronic battle power sensor. A simple, widely-used device which could be set to light up and make noise when a being with considerable energy was approaching. Sure enough, Shio was looking it over, bewildered as to why it hadn't warned her of Slug's presence. The large Namekian chuckled, reached over, and swiftly snatched the little device out of her hand. _

_ "__You won't be needing this anymore,__"__ he said, and he promptly crushed it into a hundred pieces in his hand. He tossed aside the broken scrap and addressed the stunned and confused Shio._

_ "__That thing is useless against me. And before long, it will be useless on you, too,__"__ he said. __"__I'm going to teach you how to do what I just did. Naturally sense ki, and control your own.__"_

* * *

Shio shut her eyes and concentrated, letting her mind take in the energy around her. In a few seconds, she had a bead on the ki signature. A fairly strong one from above shone in her mind's eye like a candle in a dark sanctuary. She nodded in response to Slug's question.

"Good," he replied. "Now our friend Irik here is actually a lot stronger than this. But since he's only on patrol in a big empty building with nothing to actually be wary of, at least that he knows about, he's keeping himself at this 'resting' level to conserve energy. But," he continued. "That ki is about to get a LOT smaller."

Shio opened her eyes and looked worriedly at Slug, who only smiled smugly and continued to speak.

"So what you need to do is get a good sense of just how strong he is _now_, because in a few short moments, your ki is going to be immediately _replacing_ his to anyone who might be paying attention. Understand?"

She bit her lip and nodded grimly. Slug grinned.

"Good. Follow me."

He pressed a combination of buttons on the wall and casually walked through the now-opened door. Shio remained close on his heels as they navigated a short series of impressively arched hallways, eventually coming to a central lobby area. Three large doors could be seen all surrounding the area, each one leading into the living chambers of one of the Elders, and across from them lay a large passageway immediately opening out to a grand balcony. Casually pacing around in the middle of the lobby was Irik. He was a stout but well-built Warrior who commanded a lot of respect from his peers despite his small stature. He was easily excitable though, and if asked, he'd tell you that being all alone in this building was making him a bit nervous.

So it was understandable that he'd jump a bit when Slug suddenly entered the room. Once he saw who it was, though, Irik relaxed just as quickly as he'd reacted and sighed.

"Oh, it's you, Slug," he said in casual greeting as Slug approached him. "Though I don't know who else I was expecting, since you're on patrol and all. Well, all is quiet around here. Too quiet, if you ask-"

At that moment, he noticed Shio turn the corner and come into view behind Slug.

"Who's that?" Irik was surprised again. "What's she doi — RRHMMPH!"

He was interrupted when Slug abruptly whipped his hand forward and grappled Irik firmly across the face. Irik panicked as Slug easily hoisted him up a few feet above the ground and let a vicious, sadistic sneer come across his visage.

_No... This isn't good! Got to spike my ki, signal Sir Thorgas for help,_ Irik thought as he hyperventilated. But something was wrong. His ki was somehow being steadily drained as he tried to raise it, preventing his overall level from rising at all.

Irik decided to try letting his ki drop to practically nothing, as this would serve the same purpose, but it was a split second too late. Before he could do anything, Slug's gripping hand flashed with a surge of ki. Before Irik could react to this, that flash took form as a quick but powerful blast, and his head was gone.

Slug let the twitching corpse drop to the floor and turned around to face Shio. Her fists were clenched and she was shaking a bit, but she had followed through and matched her ki to what Irik's had been.

* * *

Far off to the East of Makigai, the Dragon Clan student named Miushi had just completed his summoning. The whole process had gone splendidly, with Miushi's wish being a standard but benevolent one for a good harvest in the coming year. The crowds of his fellow students and elders applauded as the dragon departed, receding back into the now-resting Dragon Balls. With this, the entire ordeal would move farther East for the next student's summoning, following the steadily arcing eclipse. Eventually, the procession would reach Makigai where it started, and the official business portion of the ceremony would give way to a party.

As he rose from his seat to prepare to help, something caught Sir Thorgas's attention. He fixed his gaze due westward, and the adjacently-seated Bosa noticed.

"Is something wrong?"

"I felt," Thorgas mused, "Irik's ki fluctuate for a moment."

"Is he alright?"

"... Yes, he seems back to his resting power now, "Thorgas assured the both of them, shaking his head. "Likely something just surprised him. He's easily excitable."

"Very well, then," Bosa replied. The two of them continued with their business, the matter already gone from their minds.

* * *

Katatz's living chambers seemed unsettlingly large and empty when the two intruders made their way in. All manners of windows and a gigantic dome-like sky roof would normally keep the room beautifully and naturally lit, but due to the partially-visible eclipse off over the horizon and the recurring magical darkening from the Dragon summoning, there was currently very little light permeating into the room. Shio glanced around and studied the area. It was cozy and rustic, with enough woodworking and pottery equipment around that one might mistake it for a workshop, yet just enough luxuries and comfort to positively identify it as a home. Another small doorway led into what appeared to be a bedroom.

In the dim light, she noticed Slug proceed over to a large closet, wherein lay a sturdy-looking safe. It was protected by a small computerized lock, which was evidently new to the large Namekian.

"Blast," he muttered, as Shio walked over to him.

"What's wrong?" she inquired. "Are there Dragon Balls in there?"

"Undoubtedly," he replied, visibly annoyed. "But this was never so adamantly secured before, at least not since I was last here. In addition to his Dragon Balls, there must be something else in there he must want to keep particularly safe. Unfortunately, I don't know the code." He folded his arms in frustrated disgust. "If only I'd known, I might have stopped by the festival to see the old fool and get the code."

"Is he so trusting that he'd tell it to you so easily?"

Slug shot her a quick smirk. "Who said anything about him _telling_ me?"

"..."

"Regardless," Slug continued. "That's out of the question now. Not enough time. There is _one_ other Namekian who might know the code, but unfortunately I have no idea whe-"

"Slug?"

Both were startled by the young voice, and they turned around to see a Namekian child standing in the bedroom doorway. He stared intently at the two visitors, greatly confused.

"Kuji!"

"Slug, what's going..." the young one stammered, looking back and forth between the two. "Who's she? What's she doing h-"

He was quickly interrupted when, faster than he could track, Slug had moved behind him and delivered a swift knee to the child's stomach, knocking him out. The youngster keeled over and fell face-down on the floor, unconscious.

"That was too close," Slug commented. "He was suppressing his power as well, but I should have expected him to be here."

Evidently, Kuji really _wasn't_ there. The unconscious body suddenly lit up and morphed into a mass of red energy. It dissipated and warped towards the outside hallway. Slug and Shio's panicked attention followed it.

"Damnit!" Slug exclaimed as he bounded out the door, with Shio in pursuit. There in the center of the atrium, Kuji stood in catatonic shock over the decapitated body of Irik. Just as the energy from his doppleganger re-merged with him, he looked up and stared at the intruding pair. His eyes were wide and tearing with a combination of fear and disbelief.

"Slug," he whimpered. "Did you... why? What...?"

Suddenly, he interrupted himself, his expression shifting to one of frightful determination. He closed his eyes, clenched his fists down at his sides, and focused, quickly spiking his previously-suppressed ki up to as high a level he could muster. It remained there for barely a fraction of a moment, before Slug closed the distance between them and landed a quick chop to the back of Kuji's neck. The youngster's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed to the floor. There were no more sudden, surprising movements from his limp form, indicating that this was in fact the _real_ Kuji.

"Damn," Slug remarked again, as he knelt down over Kuji. "We don't have much time left now."

"Who is he?"

"He's Katatz's own son," Slug answered. "He must have been hiding here so as not to have to go to the ceremony. He always did find them boring." Slug removed his own glove and placed his hand flatly on the child's head. "Though if we're lucky, this may be a blessing in disguise..."

A moment later, Slug smiled.

"Sure enough," he remarked, standing up and replacing his glove, "he knows the pass code. Let's go."

* * *

While the small change in Irik's power had been subtle enough to ignore, the sudden flaring and disappearance of Kuji's ki was noteworthy enough to startle and catch the attention of most Namekians paying attention, most notably all three elders.

Troubled words were exchanged. A message from a concerned father was spoken into the minds of his friends. A strong and wise leader departed to investigate.

* * *

They were magnificent in appearance, but something about them gave her chills.

Within seconds, Slug had accessed the compartment and removed a small case containing a set of odd glass orbs. There were seven in total, each barely the size of Shio's fist and all a deep reddish-orange in color. Each one had an increasing number of crystal-like fragments that seemed to resemble stars. They were pitch black, almost unnaturally so, and seemed to float ominously like trapped ghosts. An inner light from the Balls glowed in a soft, strobing pattern, almost like a heartbeat.

"An interesting-looking set," Slug commented, examining the comparatively tiny three-starred ball in his massive hand. "I wonder why Katatz would take such effort to secure them like this, but," he replaced the orb and began to carry the small case out into the hall, as Shio meekly followed. "It's no matter. They'll serve their purpose."

The two quickly made their way out to the balcony. Slug hastily but carefully removed the orbs from their container and laid them gently on the floor, where they continued to hum and glow in unison. He stood and addressed Shio.

"Watch closely," he said. "This will be something you'll likely never get to see again."

He turned to the Dragon Balls, spread out his arms, and issued them a command.

"Dragon! Come out and grant my wishes!"

* * *

The tremor happened without warning, and it knocked Kale right off her feet.

Along with it came the third wave of mysterious sky-enveloping darkness that she'd been witness to since she'd woken up. Despite the onslaught of unexpected phenomena, she'd managed to safely make her way from her hiding spot, some few miles from the city in a large tree, to the small island plateau which the group had chosen as their meeting spot. Beat and Barus had already arrived, and the Saiyan trio could do little more than stay hidden and freak the hell out.

"An EARTHQUAKE now?" She panicked, desperately trying to regain her footing. "What's going on with this stupid planet?"

"Damned if I know!" Beat was desperately clutching to a tall rock for balance. "This didn't happen with any of the other blackouts!"

"Look," noted Barus, who had decided to simply sit down and ride it out. "Even the darkness is different this time."

His two compatriots followed his gaze to see that he was right. While the previous cases of the shadow had been calm, even serene, this instance was more violent in nature. The blackness seemed to warp and contort itself, and bolts of otherworldly lightning arced across the sky. If the earlier examples were like the trail ends of a sunset, this was more akin to the windy overcast before a typhoon.

As the Saiyans' stupefied attention was focused at the sky, none of them noticed when the earthquake subsided after a few more moments, until a familiar voice emanated from over the edge of the rocks.

"Ooof," it said, as a chubby figure wobbly heaved itself up onto the level ground. Kob rolled into a clumsy sitting position, a few scuffs visible on his person. "What the hell was that all about? I was climbing up here and suddenly, _WHAM_, the whole landscape starts shaking! Knocked me on my ass and I rolled all the way down!"

"We're as confused as you are," Kale said, brushing him off a bit. "It's got something to do with their ceremony, probably."

"Well, we're just waiting for Pinach, now. If he were here yet, I'm sure he'd probably be able to explain it," Beat sarcastically noted. "Brainiac seems to have an answer for everything."

"Afraid not," Pinach answered from the other side of Beat's rock.

"AAAGH!" Beat recoiled in surprise. "Stop doing that!"

"When'd you get here?" Kale asked.

"Right before the earthquake started," he answered, continuing to gaze at the sky. "Whatever's going on, it's definitely not natural. No simple eclipse could have an effect like this." He turned and spoke to Beat. "Are we still moving on with the plan?"

"Of course," the leader answered. "We just need to wait for the freakin' atmosphere to make up its mind."

"The eclipse is still an hour or so from the capitol city," Pinach commented. "If this ordeal with the sky is over by then, we'll to need to be there to meet it. Which means we should start moving now."

"I just hope," Barus suddenly piped in, "that we won't have to fight THAT."

He pointed upwards, and everyone glanced back and was shocked. Coiling in and out of the darkness was what looked like a magnificent, gigantic, red, reptilian tail.

* * *

"Well," Slug commented. "This is certainly unexpected."

_Biggest understatement in the universe,_ Shio thought to herself. _There's an actual creature involved with these things? I suppose it makes some sense. They're called _dragon_ balls after all, so no surprise that there's an actual dragon involved, but..._

Well, the thing was huge.

As soon as Slug had summoned the creature, it was like the entire planet had spasmed. First, the sky had taken on a pitch black hue far more ominous and chilling than the previous cases. A shock wave had then seemingly exploded from the Dragon Balls and shaken the entire globe, before forming into a massive stream of energy which arced upwards and around through the sky. After a few seconds, the stream began to take a physical form.

Now before Shio's very eyes, there was an enormous dragon. Its vast and mighty tail stemmed from the now intensely radiant Dragon Balls and transformed into a monumentally large and long body covered in blood-red scales and a pale white underbelly. It whipped and coiled through the sky, lengths of it stretching out to the horizon.

Its head was almost as immense as the capitol building itself, and it came to hover downwards to face its summoners. It was adorned with long, flowing, river-like whiskers and devilish bone horns, and eyes that glowed a bright golden yellow.

**"**_**REFLECT UPON YOUR DESIRES, MORTALS, AND I WILL GRANT YOUR WISH.**__**"**_

Shio was awestruck to the point she could barely stand, much less form a coherent sentence. Slug, however, seemed far more confident, as if being face-to-face with such monstrous creatures were just another facet of everyday life.

"The same standard greeting, eh?" He chortled. "But somehow I get the feeling your size isn't your only special point."

_**"**__**CORRECT,**__**"**_it answered. _**"**__**MY POWERS ARE NEAR LIMITLESS. THEY FAR OUTSTRIP ANY OTHER OF MY KIND KNOWN TO THIS WORLD.**__**"**_

"Good to know, good to know," Slug responded. "Well then, dragon. We have wishes for you."

_**"**__**BE AWARE,**__**"**_ it suddenly informed them. _**"**__**I CAN GRANT ONLY ONE.**__**"**_

Both his hosts were taken aback. This was unexpected indeed.

"Are you kidding me?" Slug complained. "The most powerful dragon on the planet, created by the head Dragon Clan Elder himself, is only capable of granting ONE wish?"

_**"**__**CHOOSE WISELY.**__**"**_

"Very well, it's all the same."

Shio blinked. "...What?"

He turned around to her and displayed his usual malevolent smile. "It appears our partnership has come to an end," he sneered before turning back to the dragon. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

No. No no no, she wouldn't let this happen. She'd come too far, sacrificed too much. She'd spent precious years of her life away from her home world, keeping herself going through low-level bounty hunting, all the while searching for something, anything that would let her accomplish her goal. Even if it resulted in the end of her life here, there was no way she would let this chance, however slim, go to waste.

It was this desperation and determination that gave Shio the burst of adrenaline she needed. She launched herself forward in front of Slug and made her plea to the dragon before he could react.

"Please," she shouted. "Return to life the Sodian named Zault!"

"What?"

_**"**__**AN EASY MATTER,**__**"**_ the dragon's mighty voice boomed. Its monstrous eyes brightly flashed, and a sound like a sonic boom resonated from it. _**"**__**IT IS DONE.**__**"**_

Both present mortals were awestruck, each for their own reasons.

"R-really? He's back?"

_**"**__**SUCH A FEAT IS WELL WITHIN MY CAPABILITIES. HE WILL ONCE MORE WALK AMONG HIS OWN PEOPLE.**__**"**_

Shio dropped to her knees and expelled a sigh of relief that she felt had been held for years.

"Thank goodness..."

_**"**__**FAREWELL...**__**"**_

"N-no," Slug stammered. "_NO__!_"

But it was far too late now for him to do anything. The dragon faded away, his gargantuan form slowly disappearing into smoke. Illuminated, it focused and contracted itself, and in one fluid motion, all funneled back down into the Dragon Balls. As the now-inactive glass spheres lay there, steam rising from them, the sky steadily faded back to normal, the eclipse visible off to the East.

Both parties remained motionless for a few moments thereafter, each perfectly aware of the present situation. The wish was done. Thorgas could be sensed well on his way, rapidly closing in on the capitol, and there was no more time for another summoning.

Slowly, Slug turned his head to face Shio. His expression was a stern one, appearing calm on the surface, but undoubtedly masking an immeasurable amount of rage beneath it.

"That," he said, "was very foolish of you."

Shio raised her head to face him. She wore the bittersweet smile of one who had contentedly accepted her fate.

"The man I revived was, or is again now, a man who once made a big difference on my home planet, before his life was ripped away from him and it all went to waste," she explained. "I'm sorry for deceiving you... no, actually, I'm not. But this was the only way. Now he'll be able to make that difference again. An even bigger one, since he's literally come back from the dead."

Slug only continued to stare, the scowl never receding from his face.

"I only wish," Shio said, barely holding back tears. "That I got to see him one last time."

"So it seems you do understand," he continued, "just what is going to come of this."

"From the moment I first spotted you, and witnessed how brutal you were back at the tavern," she answered, "I expected I wouldn't survive dealing with you. But," she sighed again. "I've finally done what I set out to do. What happens to me now doesn't matter..."

"Damn straight it doesn't!" Slug suddenly and violently thrust forward an arm and clenched his fist around the front-most locks of her hair. "You think I give a damn about you? About your pathetic little world? NO!" He raised her up above the ground. "That dragon... _THAT DRAGON_... do you know there are usually strict limits to what they're capable of? But that one... it was far more powerful than any I've ever seen. Odds are, it had no such limits! I could have been granted power beyond even my wildest dreams!

"But you," he pulled her face in close. "You ruined it. Wasted the singular wish on something so stupid and trivial! _Robbed_ me of my rightful power! You were little more than a scapegoat to begin with, but now I see I would have been better off just breaking in on my own. Nobody would be able to contest me anyway! So now, in reparation for your interference…" he forced her back down onto her knees, and she offered no real resistance. "I will end you."

He extended his free hand squarely in front of Shio's face. His hand began to crackle and glow as he gathered energy within it, preparing to deliver a lethal blow. But he was suddenly cut short. Thorgas had arrived. He rocketed in at top speed from far overhead, his flight aura dissipating as he came to a sudden halt only a short distance above the balcony. He quickly looked over the situation and called out to his son.

"There you are, Slug!" He began to slowly float down. "What's going on? Who's she? Are Kuji and Irik alright?"

As his father landed, Slug took one more glance at Shio before roughly heaving her out between them.

"She's responsible," he said. "She's evidently able to mask her ki. It appears she killed Irik and came after these Dragon Balls." He pointed to them. "I'm afraid I was too late to prevent her from making her wish. But I've caught and apprehended her, and I'll be more than happy to conduct an interrogation."

"I'm sure," Thorgas responded, still taking in the scene. He then closed his eyes, concentrating on the life forces around him. "Kuji... appears unconscious, yet not seriously harmed. But Irik is gone." He opened his eyes again, studying Shio. "You say she killed him?" He received a nod from Slug in response.

Thorgas calmly approached her and tenderly spoke to ease her clearly visible fear.

"I remember you, from the tavern," he said. As he reached her, he gently extended an arm, lightly placing a hand atop her head and closing his eyes again. "I won't hurt you. Remain still."

A long moment passed.

"She could not possibly have killed Irik," Thorgas finally announced. "I've probed her ki, and even within her deepest reserves, she lacks the power to do so."

He removed his hand and placed it on her shoulder, turning back to his son.

"Slug... What really happened?"

"..."

"Oh no..."

All eyes turned to the newcomers. Floating at the edge of the railing was Katatz, accompanied by two younger Namekian warriors. The Elder was staring intently at the silent Dragon Balls which still lay together on the balcony floor. He made a careful landing and then quickly hobbled his way over to them, addressing Thorgas as he passed.

"Is Kuji alright?"

"He's been knocked out, but he's no longer in any danger," Thorgas responded. "Is something wrong?"

Katatz reached the orbs and knelt down to examine them, a cold sweat breaking out over his brow.

"Oh no, it's true," he lamented. "I was afraid of this..."

"What is it, Katatz?" Thorgas repeated as he moved over to his fellow elder's side. Shio stuck close beside him, all the while keeping a vigilant and nervous eye on the brooding Slug.

Thorgas spoke again. "Those Dragon Balls, are they yours? They look... different than usual."

"Yes, they were... an experiment. But I sealed them away... I never meant for them to be used, because they were so dangerous."

"What do you mean? 'Dangerous,' how?"

"Every set of Dragon Balls operates under a balance of Positive and Negative energy," the old Namekian explained. "Positive energy is what the dragons use to grant their wishes. It is a wonderful, creative force. However, using this leaves a destructive and void-like force in its place called Negative energy. Normally, Dragon Balls turn to stone for some period of time, so that they can re-absorb the Negative energy lest it build up.

"But these were a test of a new method. A normal dragon is limited by the power and spirit of its creator. But these... these Dragon Balls are not so. I created them, but they hold no connection to me. They are independent and self-sustaining. I thought this would be a way to create a wonderful new set that could be used by generations to come even after my passing. They were meant to be my masterpiece. My last great contribution and gift as the Dragon Clan Elder...

"But soon after their creation, I could tell that something wasn't right. Without the connection to me serving as a threshold, the pent-up power within the Dragon Balls only kept growing. It manifested itself as something ominous. Something frightful. It was too powerful; it scared me, and I knew why."

He slowly stood and turned around to face them all, a frightened look upon his face.

"The amount of Negative energy released if they were ever used would be massive, and these Black-starred Dragon Balls would never re-absorb it. They would simply reset themselves and begin amassing Positive energy again. Small amounts of Negative energy are relatively harmless, at least until they are nullified by the balls. But the amount which has been released by these Dragon Balls now..."

Katatz turned his head to face them all, his face stricken with fear and disbelief. "...Will destroy this entire world."


	5. Slugfest

**DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM**

By KaboomKrusader

Chapter Five - "_Slugfest_"

After a mere five minutes, the planet was already beginning to show signs of change. The wind had noticeably picked up, and the scattered clouds were starting to warp and grow in the sky. The partially-eclipsed sun just over the horizon cast an eerie glow over the landscape, which only added to the sense of uneasiness that all six present beings on the balcony shared. For a few moments, nothing was said in their collective shock as the impact of what Katatz had just said was allowed to set in. Finally, the most unlikely one of the bunch was the first to speak.

"That can't be true," Shio uttered. "The whole planet destroyed? He's exaggerating, isn't he?"

"I wish that were the case," Thorgas replied. He stepped forward and knelt down next to his fellow elder. "Katatz, can anything be done?"

"I can't be certain," he responded, then turned to examine the Dragon Balls more closely. "Perhaps there is something. A slim hope, at best, but it may work. I hope it's not too late..."

"In either case, Sir Thorgas," said Mushi, one of the warriors, "we should prepare for the worst."

"I agree," the elder replied as he stood back up. "Both of you get back to the ceremony grounds as quickly as you can. Tell Bosa what has happened and that I suggest we try to evacuate." The two warriors nodded and immediately launched off eastward. Thorgas then turned around to face his son.

"Start explaining yourself. What were you trying to gain with these Dragon Balls?"

The younger warrior was unresponsive and simply stared out into space.

"What does the woman have to do with this? Did you kill Irik? What about Kagyu; were you responsible for that, too?"

Silence.

"Slug," he sternly commanded. "Answer me. Now."

Suddenly, Slug finally reacted. He kicked his head back and laughed. All were taken aback as he continued to cackle like a maniac, bringing one hand up to clutch his forehead.

"I don't care!"

"What?"

"It's funny," Slug continued, turning to face his father directly and grinning. "It's just that after all this, all this trouble I've gone through, all the people I've killed, and what's resulted now? And yet, I don't even care! Imagine that!"

Thorgas quickly closed the short distance between them. "How dare you!" He said, raising his arm and bringing it down to backhand his son's face. But Slug's own hand whipped forward and caught it in mid-air, as his face continued to be marked with a devious grin.

"Truth be told," he said. "I was really started to get bored with this planet anyway." He tightened his grip to counteract Thorgas' struggling. "But so long as it looks like I'll be leaving... What say I have a little final fun before I take off, hmm?"

With that, he violently twisted his torso around, whipping his arm and bodily throwing Thorgas out off of the balcony at breakneck speed. The elder quickly vanished from sight, falling down into the distant streets of Makigai. Slug jumped over and crouched himself on the balcony railing, preparing for takeoff, before turning around to Shio one last time.

"Good luck getting off this planet. I destroyed your ship. Didn't think you'd be needing it."

He laughed again as he pushed himself off and flew away in pursuit of his sire. Shio was left flabbergasted and frightened.

"What," she asked to nobody in particular, "is he planning on doing?"

"Nothing good, that's now certain," responded Katatz. Shio turned around to see him carefully examining the Dragon Balls. "To think that Slug would be responsible for all these horrible things lately..."

Shio walked over and looked down at him.

"... What," she inquired, "are _you_ planning to do?"

"Well," he answered, "I will attempt to modify them to reabsorb the negative energy."

"Can you still do that?" She stared at them inquisitively. "I'm not still entirely sure how they work, but I thought you said you no longer had any connection to them."

"Well, not entirely," he explained. "True, they operate independently of me, unlike other sets. However, I'm still their creator. They are powered through the reserve of my life force I gave them, and as such I alone can still affect them." He turned to her and allowed a small smile to crack onto his aged and troubled lips. "Sort of like having the combination to a lock, no?"

Shio nodded, smiling a bit before sighing.

"So then, miss, I believe it's my turn to ask a question now," Katatz said. "Unlike Slug, I feel no malice in you, despite this grim outcome. No evil intentions." He turned and continued examining the Dragon Balls. "What was your purpose then? Why did you seek the power of the Dragon Balls?"

"It's a bit of a long story," she said.

"Time matters little at this point, and I'm not going anywhere," he assured her. "Please, enlighten me."

"... My home world, Sodius," she soberly explained, "is under a horrible dictatorship. The emperor is a warlord who harbors and makes deals with terrible criminals both from on- and off-world, letting them run loose and do as they please in the cities. He seizes almost all the natural resources for himself and his corrupt officials, leaving most of the rest of the population in poverty. He enslaves entire families when they can't pay their outrageous taxes, and sometimes even when they can.

"There was a man named Zault, who was... or again now is, my husband." She knelt down next to Katatz, addressing him face-to-face. "But he was more than that. He was a revolutionary and a natural-born leader. He had a level of charisma like nobody had ever seen before. Bravery beyond words. Compassion so deep that few could ever truly understand it. Not even me.

"About ten years ago, he led a revolt, and it was actually successful. The emperor was every bit as lazy and complacent as he was selfish, and his limited forces were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of followers Zault managed to rally. The war was practically already won, when they laid a trap. They captured me, and transmitted my personal 'safe to proceed' signal to the army."

"But when he and the army moved in, they revealed me. Used me as bait. I wish... I wish he hadn't tried to save me! I wish he had been the one to live! They ambushed him and assassinated him in front of the entire battlefield. The rebels' morale was completely shattered, and the imperialists knew it. They even allowed the rebel forces to retreat, and let me go. Because the Emperor was so sure that by killing a single man, he could squelch the entire revolution... and he was right.

"I managed to escape the planet," Shio exclaimed, a small, sober smile finding its way to her lips, "and I've spent almost five years since wandering the galaxies, trying to find some way to help my people. But I had no influence. No way of finding anyone with the type of power or authority to do anything about it. I was beginning to lose hope." She pointed to the Dragon Balls. "But then I began hearing rumors about Planet Namek. About how your people supposedly had the power to work miracles. About artifacts called 'Dragon Balls.' So I came here, pursuing something that seemed crazy but was my last hope.

"Before I knew it, I was teaming up with Slug," she said, shaking her head. "Shows how desperate I was. I honestly didn't think it'd work. But in the end, I got my wish. I brought Zault back." She looked upwards at the sky. "His returning to life is a miracle, and it will be seen that way by the whole population. He'll re-spark that flame in the rebels and there will be nothing to stop them this time. Especially me. Sodius will finally be free."

She turned her head back to the attentive Katatz, her face wracked with bittersweet guilt.

"I'm sorry I caused all this trouble for you... I wasn't trying to be selfish, but I've ended up doing so much harm..."

"Indeed," he conferred. "Life is full of unexpected consequences. It's partially my fault, as well," he said. "I should have destroyed these Dragon Balls long ago. I knew they were dangerous."

"I want to do something to help," Shio said.

"Well, I suppose," he said. "You should take off to the East. Try to help Bosa in organizing the evacuations. See that you get yourself off the planet in the process."

She nodded, stood, and walked to the edge of the balcony, preparing to take off before Katatz spoke again.

"I can sense your honesty," he consoled her. "Your intentions were noble, and you had no idea something like this could result from them. As far as I'm concerned," he displayed another smile. "You are forgiven."

"... Thank you."

* * *

"You cannot simply be forgiven for this," Thorgas stated.

He and Slug floated steadily in the air some distance from each other, as Kalum's Pass and all its connected thoroughfares rested below. The city was entirely abandoned, with the winds causing an unsettling howl to reverberate through its empty streets. Slug turned himself around this way and that, seeming to ignore his sire's words as he examined the area around them.

"I'm partially to blame," Thorgas solemnly continued. "I took you in and raised you to be my successor. In order to ensure that you'd be strong enough to defend Namek against anything, I taught you to be especially courageous and ambitious. But!" He adamantly raised his voice, recapturing Slug's attention. "You've gone too far. You've allowed yourself to become influenced and corrupted by the very wickedness you were meant to repel, and now you've endangered the planet itself through your selfishness." He raised a hand towards him. "As your father, it pains me beyond words to do this. But as the appointed Head Elder of the Warrior Clan, it's still my duty."

Slug folded his arms, and arched up an eye ridge in curiosity.

"For the safety of this world and countless others," Thorgas stated, "I must eliminate you."

A moment of silence passed as the two simply glared at each other. Slug finally spoke, closing his eyes, and wearing a smug smirk.

"Corrupted? Hmph, don't be so closed-minded, you old fool. I prefer... 'enlightened.' To tell you the truth," Slug boasted, "I've always had that spark inside me, thirsty for fuel to grow into a full flame. Call it ambition, call it greed, call it whatever you like, but..." He clenched both hands into a fist and smiled. "The Namekian race has so much potential, so much that we're capable of. I've no use for a race that chooses to squander their talent with simple farming and trading. It's such a waste!"

He brought both arms down and out beside him, palms open. "Not me, though. Through all the alien techniques and regiments I've acquired, I've dug much farther into my potential and power than you could ever hope to, and I'll use it to become the greatest. You can't kill me. You can try, but in the end, I'll leave this planet behind and be free to do as I please. But before that..."

A deathly grin crawled across his face.

"You've always been interested in my progress, Father. So, let me demonstrate, one final time, what I can _REALLY DO_!"

He clenched his fists, flexed his muscles, and bellowed. The air rippled and warped around him as he powered up, generating a powerful shockwave of wind that blew the unprepared Thorgas back a few feet and kicked up dust on the street below. Slug grinned, then, within a second, rocketed forward and delivered a crushing right hook to Thorgas' head. The elder recoiled in pain as he flew backward and downward, crashing through the roof of a small shop. The force of his impact into the ground caused the building to collapse down, around and on top of him. As the dust began to scatter, Slug called down.

"You couldn't have been knocked out by just one hit!" He brought up his left hand over his right shoulder. "Now come on back out, old one!" He waved his arm across, and a powerful spray of ki blasts scattered from his hand. They rained down upon the street, blasting apart the shop's rubble and smashing through walls and roofs of other nearby buildings.

A sizable cloud of dust and debris burst out and hung in the air. Slug raised an arm again and charged a good amount of ki in his hand, intending to deliver another blast to flush out his opponent. But then, he detected motion in his peripheral vision. Something had darted out of the dust cloud over to his left, and Slug instinctively whipped around and threw his ki blast at it. However, it had been only a rock, now falling to the ground as a bunch of smaller rocks, having served its purpose as a decoy.

Realizing this, Slug began to turn back around. But even the short two or three seconds this had all taken were too much, as Thorgas had since charged up and out of the rubble and planted his knee into Slug's ribs with impressive force. Slug gagged and floated backwards, clutching his side.

"So much for superiority," Thorgas remarked. "You just fell for the oldest trick in the book."

"True," Slug grunted. "Though I guess it's only natural that I'm a little out of practice. I've been fighting nothing but weakling after weakling lately." He returned to a ready stance. "I'm glad I'm actually going to get a fight out of my last victim on this planet."

"Don't be so quick to label me that," the elder replied. "You haven't beaten me yet."

Thorgas suddenly and quite literally stretched out his right arm. It extended the full five or six yards between them, allowing him to grasp the unsuspecting Slug by his coat collar. He retracted the limb, pulling Slug into striking range, and delivered a powerful headbutt that left the younger warrior momentarily stunned. Thorgas followed up by planting his other arm onto Slug's torso and repulsing him with a powerful burst of ki. It sent him rapidly spiraling backwards and straight through an outer wall before crashing to a halt somewhere inside the building's top floor.

After a short moment, the entire top portion of the structure exploded outwards, as Slug released a kiai burst in all directions to free himself. He regained his senses, only to be greeted by a powerful ball of ki spiraling down from directly above. At the last second, he reacted and put up his hands in an attempt to block it. He was only partially successful, as the attack's momentum pushed him straight down through the next story before exploding.

A moment later, Slug reappeared, calmly standing within the gradually-scattering dust and debris. He looked upward where his opponent remained hovering in the air, awaiting his next move. Slug cracked open a wide grin.

"Wonderful."

He crouched down, then launched himself into flight with such force that the remaining three stories of the building crumbled apart in his wake. He homed in on Thorgas at blistering speeds and threw a powerful left jab at the elder's head. Thorgas leaned to his own left and redirected the punch from the side with his right arm. He twisted around to his right, and landed a powerful uppercut directly into Slug's gut.

The younger warrior recoiled, gripping the point of impact as the blow sent him flying upwards. Thorgas wasted no time or opportunity and gave chase after him. He quickly closed the small gap between them, then flipped backwards to throw a swinging kick towards Slug's head. Slug reacted in time to bring his arms back up from his midsection and block the kick. He shifted his hands to grab Thorgas by the ankle and swung him around multiple times before heaving him away. He used his own momentum to swing around once more and throw a crackling ki blast after Thorgas.

Thorgas oriented himself to notice the burst approaching him and readied himself. He arced his hand up next to his head and smacked away the ki blast with great force. Then, in the same motion, he brought his opposite hand over as well to block a punch from Slug, who had appeared in that same moment.

"I'm so glad," the younger warrior hissed through his grinning teeth, "that you aren't disappointing me." He threw a quick series of jabs, all of which Thorgas blocked.

"Can't say the same for you," Thorgas replied. He parried away Slug's last blow and responded with a spinning left kick. It missed its mark as Slug managed to bob his torso away and avoid it. Thorgas took advantage of his position and thrust his right leg forward, making impact with Slug's torso.

As Slug was sent flying backwards, he reached out with his own arm and grasped Thorgas by the hood of his cloak. He allowed his arm to stretch some amount as he soared, then pulled Thorgas along through the air. After a short moment, he whipped his arm around, yanking Thorgas past him and sending him careening into another small building. Thorgas crashed straight through the building and landed on the street beyond it.

He rolled on the ground once, then leaped backwards onto his feet, barely moving out of the way before Slug stomped his foot down in the spot where Thorgas' head had been just a second before, splitting the stone pavement apart. Thorgas pushed both his arms out forward and let loose a powerful burst of ki. The force of it sent Slug reeling backwards, barreling straight into the same building Thorgas had just been through himself. It became the latest architectural casualty of their battle as it collapsed down in a violent cloud of rubble.

After a few seconds, Slug hopped out from the background and landed on top of the ruins. He looked it over as he stood for a moment, cracking his knuckles then stretching his arms outward. As he did, the large pieces of stone and clay around him began to quiver and crack. Slug then thrust his arms forward, and the rubble took flight through telekinesis. Thorgas parried and dodged them, and they scattered and crashed into more buildings around him.

"Good reflexes," Slug said. "But not too concerned about the city being wrecked, are we?"

"Buildings can be replaced," Thorgas replied. "But not always lives."

"You should be concerned about your own life," Slug cracked. "Even if I happen to let you live out of boredom, you're still probably not going to escape the planet's destruction."

"Katatz will be able to reverse it. You assume too much."

"Speak for yourself," the younger warrior chuckled. "I wouldn't place too much trust in the worn-down old fool if I were you."

"One who's betrayed and slaughtered his own kinsmen has no right to speak of trust," Thorgas reprimanded. "Nevertheless, Katatz may need my help, and I should make haste to get back and give it to him. That means," he went into a slight crouching stance. "That I need to finish this with you _now_."

Thorgas let loose a steady roar that echoed throughout the empty streets. The stone cracked apart below his feet, the dust was blown away without a trace, and a forceful, white ki aura burst into form around him as he pushed his power to its limits. The aura continued to pulsate as Thorgas stood up straight, removed his tattered outer cloak, and tossed it aside. He glared at Slug, displaying the piercing attitude of righteous authority that had kept Planet Namek safe under his watch for over a hundred years.

Slug soaked it in for a moment before smiling.

"Is that all?"

* * *

It didn't work.

Upon hearing the news from the warriors Mushi and Iamai, Bosa had directed for the first and most natural measure to be taken for such circumstances. Konama, Katatz's best student, had summoned his dragon and attempted to wish for the damage to be reversed. But it was for naught. The dragon was powerless to do anything, claiming it was impossible for him to affect the work of a superior dragon. So with 'cosmic cheating' no longer being an option, Bosa fell back on the only other viable course of action: evacuation.

So he had begun to work, duly exercising his skills as a leader and organizer. A good three quarters of the total of over two hundred thousand Namekian citizens had been traveling along with the Dragon Clan ceremony. They were set to be rounded together and rushed back to the Makigai Spaceport as quickly as possible. Fast-flying warriors were sent out to fetch the residents of the more remote villages. Inventories were taken of what ships were available and where they were stored.

Yet now, Bosa had decided to abandon his place among the crowds to follow this alien woman.

She'd arrived just a few minutes after Mushi and Iamai. Naturally for a variety of reasons, she was greeted with surprise and distrust. She had pleaded to speak to Bosa and had gone on to further explain the situation as it had progressed after the two warriors left. After some discussion, Bosa had decided there was better use for the two of them than with the population, and after dealing out assignments to some responsible Namekian Seers, he had taken off in flight with her. Now here they were, soaring through the sky about halfway back to Makigai.

"Sir Thorgas is in trouble..."

Bosa turned his head around and addressed her.

"What was that?"

"His power rose before, but now it's wavering and Slug's is only growing greater," she replied. "I don't think the fight is going very well."

"Ah, you can sense ki? That's quite a rare ability for a non-Namekian," Bosa complimented her. He then turned his face forward again, closed his eyes, and focused. "You're correct. Thorgas may be in over his head here."

There was a moment of ponderous silence before Shio spoke again.

"... I should go help him."

"Do you think that's wise?"

"No, it's honestly very stupid," she replied dryly. "Even still, I may not be a strong contender compared to any of your warriors, but I'm the strongest and closest ally available. Plus, Thorgas saved my life from Slug, even if it was just by chance. If there's even a slim opportunity, I want to do the same for him."

"Very well," Bosa conceded. "We'll split up once we reach the city. I'll assist Katatz in any way I can, and you see if you can help tip the scales for Thorgas. But please be careful."

"Trust me," Shio said. "If there's ANYTHING I'm an expert on by this point..."

* * *

"Ahahahaha!"

Slug cackled enthusiastically as his elbow slammed into the side of Thorgas' skull. The elder recoiled in pain before propelling himself back at Slug. Slug raised an arm in preparation to swat him away, but Thorgas suddenly changed course, shooting himself to the side and around to his opponent's back. He swung his left foot forward, aiming a kick at Slug's head, but the younger Namekian swiftly turned, bringing up his right arm to block it. Slug retaliated by delivering a powerful punch to the jaw, following up with a kick of his own to Thorgas' ribs. Thorgas righted himself from the impact and clutched his side where the latest addition to his growing collection of bruises was forming. He glared at Slug.

"You..."

"Even stronger than you'd have thought, right?" The younger warrior chided. "I told you. I've been expanding my horizons. What have YOU been doing with yourself, though? Is this truly your full power?"

The elder Namekian lowered his arms and closed his eyes. He remained motionless, focusing himself while Slug continued.

"If you don't start showing me something impressive soon, I'm going to get bored," he taunted. "I told you I wanted to have a FUN fight before I leave this planet! Not a dull, one-sided massac-"

Suddenly, Thorgas vanished from sight, interrupting Slug. He reappeared in a split second right in front of him and delivered a thundering punch directly into his gut. Slug was stunned, allowing Thorgas to shoot himself upwards, slamming his knee into Slug's jaw. Slug was sent flying backwards, but Thorgas didn't allow for any distance to form between them. He charged, delivering a continuous and powerful flurry of punches, repeatedly striking Slug in the torso, arms, and head.

Slug was rendered unable to fight back for a long moment, forced to take the rapid punishment. At last, he managed to pull his head away and avoid a single punch, which allowed him enough of a gap to grab his father by the wrists, first the one hand then the other.

"Good! It seems," he said, "that you CAN put up a good fight!"

He quickly jerked Thorgas forward, planting a kick to his torso which knocked him up into the sky.

"But unfortunately, you're still not giving me _everything_. So," he continued, "it seems you'll need some extra motivation."

Slug held out his right hand. He let loose a hoarse roar, and ki visibly began to gather in his grasp. After a few short seconds, a crackling ball of violent ki had formed. He held it up to see.

"Let's try this."

He drew his hand back and then thrust it forward, throwing the blast towards Thorgas at full speed. Thorgas braced his defense, drawing his own arm back in order to deflect it. Suddenly, however, Slug brought his own arm back again. The ki blast followed suit, as it decreased its speed just short of reaching Thorgas, then arced its way back around in Slug's general direction.

"Not for you," Slug calmly said with a smile.

The ki blast blazed past Slug as well, and rocketed away at a downward angle. It flew off into the distance, breaching the Makigai city limits and passing over the steep, rocky hills that surrounded the city. Thorgas watched in helpless horror as the blast swiftly descended and hit its mark.

The entire planet seemed to shake for the second time that day. All of Makigai, save for the solitary capitol tower, was cast in shadow as a massive, unholy explosion formed adjacent to the city and expanded to the size of an entire island. The shockwave caused widespread damage to the city, cracking apart streets and collapsing entire buildings. Burning rubble composed of stone, wood, and metal began raining down from the sky.

The Makigai Spaceport, all of several square miles' worth of it, had been annihilated.

"Ahaha, oops!" Slug cracked, with a sarcastic sense of doubt and concern. "Did I just blow up all the ships?"

Thorgas gazed at the destruction solemnly.

"Well, it's not a problem for me," Slug said. "We've got our private vessels in the capitol tower. After I beat you down, I'll be leaving on ours. You and the other elders might be able to squeeze a couple dozen or so more onto the remaining two ships, and a few of the villages have their own smaller ports to use, but... the rest of the population had better hope the old man knows what he's doing."

Thorgas turned his head to his son, frowning furiously. Slug was amused.

"I like that look," he taunted. "Feel like giving it your all yet?"

He received his answer in the form of three solid knuckles being driven into his nose before he could blink.

Slug's entire upper body was knocked back from the impact, a splatter of violet blood streaming from his nose and his eyes wide with shock. Before he could counter-attack, Thorgas' other fist slammed into his gut, knocking the breath from him. Then another to the temple, to the ribs, to the jaw, and Thorgas lastly finished the combo with a swinging kick that sent Slug plummeting downwards.

He jetted after him, arcing up a fist to continue the pounding. But Slug reacted and grabbed Thorgas' wrist, halting the blow. Thorgas threw another with his free hand, but it was stopped in the same manner.

"Ahaha, wow!" Slug exclaimed. "Now THIS is what I'm talking about! Keep going!"

Thorgas obliged by pulling Slug inward by the arms and stunning him with a solid headbutt. This caused Slug's grip to weaken, and Thorgas reversed their hands' positions, grasping Slug by the wrists. He leaned forward, doing a full front-somersault in the air, and threw Slug down towards the street.

He gave chase again, but Slug recovered and ricocheted off the edge of a building. He surprised Thorgas in midair and delivered a powerful right hook that sent the elder careening downwards even faster. Thorgas made impact with the weakened stone pavement and became embedded deep underneath it, disappearing out of sight. Slug made a soft landing on the street several yards from the impromptu entryway. He was breathing heavily, and he wiped some blood from his face.

"Not bad," he panted. "Not bad at all. Let's see if you can keep it up..."

Several seconds passed, with no response or action. Slug remained where he was, watching. _Has he been knocked out?_ He thought. _No, I can feel his ki. It's still raised for battle._

"Well then," he said, as he lifted off and steadily began rising into the air above the street. "If you're not going to come out on your own, I'll have to flush you out." He raised both his hands above his head, channeling ki into them in preparation to raze the entire street with a volley of blasts. But then, he felt Thorgas' ki begin to fluctuate and grow.

"Oh," he said. "Looks like there's no need."

Suddenly, the entire street quaked and buckled, cracking apart. A ripple in the stone spread outwards from Thorgas' position, fragmenting the pavement. It settled where it was, lying somewhat elevated and dislocated.

"A shockwave?" Slug paused, watching. "His ki has risen again, too. What did he do...?"

Slug once again received his prompt answer in the form of Thorgas' fist. Only this time, that fist was the size of Slug's entire body.

* * *

Even though he was approaching the city from the opposite direction, Bosa kept his flight path low and slow, suppressing his ki as much as possible so as to avoid the battle. Slug and Thorgas were operating at a level of power so high above his own that even a stray blast that would be nothing to them might instantly kill him if he were unfortunate enough to be caught in its path.

The shockwave from the destruction of the Spaceport had already nearly knocked him out once, and now, as he flew, he had the somber privilege of observing the destruction that it had wrought down on the city. Massive fissures had formed which stretched across entire neighborhoods. Landslides on the cliffs surrounding the city had only added to the number of wrecked homes and that lay upon and below them. The burning debris had set alight a series of still-localized fires within the streets.

As Bosa finally reached the capitol at the center of the city, his heart sank. The beautiful, renowned Ajissa gardens that surrounded the tower were not as lucky as the other portions of the city. They were near-completely engulfed in flame, restricting access to the tower through any method but by the sky. Bosa arced himself upwards, circling around towards the large, West-side balcony where Katatz presided.

Or at least, that was where he was supposed to be. Bosa was unable to sense his ki and feared the worst. It wasn't until he actually landed and could see him that he detected a faint trickle of his life emanating from him. The elder appeared more frail than ever before as he lay slumped down on the floor. Beside him lay a set of seven small Dragon Balls, undoubtedly the dangerous 'Black Star' ones which had put the planet in peril.

Bosa rushed over to his colleague's side and rustled him gently but desperately.

"Katatz! Katatz, can you hear me?"

A pained breath escaped from the elder's mouth, and his eyes slowly opened. He managed to turn his head a bit to face Bosa. His skin was pale and felt cold to the touch, and his eyes appeared gray and lifeless.

"Bosa... I'm sorry," he wheezed. "I failed."

Bosa's guts twisted into knots.

"The woman told me what was happening," he said. "So you were unable to alter these Dragon Balls, then?"

"N-no," Katatz responded. "I managed to do that much, and they reabsorbed the Negative Energy," he related, as Bosa gently helped him sit up. "But it was too little, too late." He gazed out into no particular direction. "Our world has already been dealt a mortal wound and is dying."

"The Negative Energy must have already damaged the planet's core," Bosa noted. "What's more, the spaceport has been destroyed. Without it, we have not nearly enough ships to evacuate everybody. All is lost, then..."

"... No."

Bosa perked up. "What do you mean?"

"There is... another set of Dragon Balls," Katatz explained. "These Black Stars... they were an experiment. For now, the dragon within them is the most powerful in existence. But," he laid a hand down on the floor of the balcony. "This other set... they are my masterpiece. I have them stored away within this tower. The dragon that resides in them would be more than mighty enough to save the planet."

"Then we cannot waste any time!" Bosa exclaimed. "You must tell me where these Dragon Balls are! You must activate them, so we ca-"

"Bosa, I am blind."

The younger one halted in shock.

"You already know how the Black Star Dragon Balls live," he said. "They are not linked to me, connected to my own vitality. Rather, I donated a portion of my own life force to them, and allowed it to grow within them. The effects of this were... drastic. I could sense that it had shortened my years dramatically. That's why after never having a son in my life before then, I created Kuji... Now, altering the Black Star Dragon Balls has drained what little vitality was left within me. I cannot walk. I cannot see. It is all I can do to breathe and speak to you. For me to empower another set now is impossible."

"What about Kuji then? He's your own son, and your brightest student."

"...I crafted these new Dragon Balls, and their dragon... as his inheritance," Katatz continued, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "They would be my gift to him, and my apology for missing out on the majority of his life. But he's not ready yet... He has the gift, but he has not honed his skills or expanded his knowledge enough..."

Katatz's hand slowly and shakily lifted up, and he grasped Bosa's arm.

"There is another way," he said, "that I can help. I can donate that required skill and knowledge... to _you_."

It took Bosa a moment to realize what he meant. "Are you suggesting...?"

"We are in... a desperate situation," Katatz implored him. "This is our only remaining option..."

"I understand, old friend," Bosa said. He laid his free hand on Katatz's chest. "What shall I do with Kuji? And these Black Star Dragon Balls?"

"You will know..."

* * *

Slug had never before in all his life had to dodge entire buildings. He arced and weaved through the sky, trying to keep his flight path unpredictable to avoid the massive pieces of architecture that were being used by Thorgas as makeshift projectiles.

"The Giant Form, is it?" Slug taunted. "I must have made you more desperate than I thought!"

Though he did his best to keep up his snide commentary, Slug was actually in trouble. When he'd complimented his father's strength before, he'd _meant _it. Thorgas' power had actually already proven to nearly match his own in their bout, but now with this added transformation, it was starting to become more than he could currently handle.

He'd cursed himself for not figuring out what had happened and getting away immediately, as that first enormous blow from under the ground had dealt some real damage. His entire torso was still throbbing, and the hurt had only been piled on more and more in those first couple of seconds. Thorgas' speed hadn't suffered in the slightest with the increase in mass, and the elder Namekian had landed quite a few solid hits before Slug had managed to gain a vector of escape into the air.

That tiny uneasy part of him was now growing by the second. Thorgas was now several stories tall, looming over the remaining intact structures which he and Slug had been punching each other through just minutes before. With an opponent of this size there was a lot more mass and force behind the blows, especially when the fighter was no less fast because of it. Slug had been relatively lucky at first, but even those couple of blows a few moments ago had really hurt and caused his own power to suffer. If Thorgas got in a clean enough hit, it could instantly decide the battle, and if worse came to worst, Slug would need to take drastic measures to prevent that.

His attention heightened as Thorgas heaved himself into the air, causing the already-fractured stone pavement to outright shatter from the force of his launch. The gigantic warrior arced back his fist as he ascended and threw a punch like a wrecking ball. At the last moment, Slug dodged and dipped downwards, rocketing underneath in an attempt to take Thorgas' back. However, Thorgas reacted by thrusting out his foot, landing a powerful kick against Slug's unguarded frame. Slug felt something crack as the force of the blow sent him careening headfirst into the street at an angle, plowing on his back through debris and leaving a several-yards-long trench in his path. Before Slug could recover, Thorgas turned his upper body around so as to face the landing spot. The pupils of his eyes glowed for a brief second before letting loose with two thin, fast, and deadly beams of ki. The pain continued for Slug as they trailed their way down the street towards him, leaving a line of explosions before hitting their mark.

Slug was thrown even further back by the blast, struggling to compose himself from the pain. His body was peppered with bruises and cuts, his cloak and clothing were torn and singed, and his head was swimming. He made impact with the ground once again, tumbling for some distance before coming to a stop face-down on the rocky ground.

After a moment or two of stillness, he slowly and wobbly pushed himself upwards and stood. Grasping his throbbing sides, he turned himself around just barely in time for his entire vision to be filled again with Thorgas' immense figure. Slug brought up his hands in a futile attempt to stop it, but it was largely pointless, as a massive palm came crashing down upon him. The shock wave of the impact warped the ground around it, leaving a deep indentation and pushing layers of stone up to the surface.

Unluckily for Slug, that blow left him completely stunned and winded, unable to move. But luckily for Slug, it had served as an impromptu method of entry into Makigai's underground waterworks system. The tunnel's upper ceiling shattered apart, and Slug joined a cluster of debris in falling down into two feet of flowing water. He rolled himself out of dodge and propped himself up against the tunnel wall.

Suppressing his ki, Slug rested out of sight for a moment before steadily plodding along through the tunnel. He pondered over his options. The first was to dig in and tap into his full power. What he'd been using so far was as much as he could normally put out. But over the last couple years of gaining power, he'd never attempted to push himself to his true maximum. If he did so now, it would _probably_ allow him to emerge from this battle victorious. But his body would undoubtedly have difficulty channeling that much power, and it forcing it out could end up doing him more harm than good.

The other option was to flee, to keep his ki masked and slip away through the under-city like the vermin who inhabited it. And _that_ was unthinkable.

He worked his way farther down a kilometer or so, putting ample distance between him and where he could still sense his father, until he came across a portal back up to the streets. He was on the edge of the city, against the cliffs that surrounded most of the island. He climbed up, slowly and carefully, and found a low roof on which to position himself. He despised having to sneak around like this, but he had to be sure he was allowed ample time to power up without interruption.

Slug could see Thorgas some distance away - not like that was difficult to do under the circumstances. He was still in his giant form and now floating at a low altitude above the streets. His eyes were closed in concentration as he tried to locate Slug's ki. Well, it was time to give him something worth sensing.

Slug planted his feet, clenched his fists, and quickly began to pump himself up. His muscles bulged, and a glowing aura formed like an outline against him, signifying all his ki being focused into his body rather than being emitted and wasted. Small sparks of energy still escaped, arcing from his body into the air around him. His tattered tunic rippled and waved from the powerful forces being harnessed. Naturally, this didn't escape Thorgas' attention. Off in the distance, he instantly felt the sudden reappearance of and sharp jump in Slug's ki, reacting by quickly turning himself around and launching at full speed. He pulled back his fist again, intending to land another mighty blow onto the younger warrior before he finished.

But it was too late. He threw the punch, displacing massive amounts of air as his limb rocketed forward... and Slug caught it. He planted his feet and stretched both arms out wide, grasping the entire width of the massive fist and stopping Thorgas dead in his tracks.

"Not... so fast!"

Just like on the balcony earlier, Slug twisted himself around, swinging Thorgas along with him and physically heaving his gigantic frame away. Thorgas crashed and rolled once, coming to a stop against a cliff face. He quickly pushed himself back up again, jumping forward and arcing his arm across his fist for a backhanded chop. He swung it, but Slug saw it coming in plenty of time. He jumped straight upwards, dodging the blow, and threw a shattering uppercut to the elder's jaw.

The force of the blow sent Thorgas tumbling backwards, landing on his back again. The moment he made impact, Slug was there and planted a powerful two-legged stomp right below the ribs. He bounced off and took high into the air again as Thorgas tried to right himself while gasping for air. He was allowed no time to recover, however. Slug raised up both hands above his head, and a crackling ball of ki formed between them. He threw it downward where it exploded in a massive ball of fire.

"Raaaaaaaaaaigh!"

Letting loose all of his power, Slug continued mercilessly barraging his sire with blast after blast. They streamed out from his hands like a machine gun, falling and carpet-bombing the entire area where Thorgas lay. The whole city block was engulfed in smoke as the streets crumbled apart and buildings and rock walls collapsed upon themselves.

After a few moments, he calmed down and halted. Thorgas' ki had dwindled considerably, and now Slug could barely sense it. Deciding to finish things up-close and personal, Slug levitated down towards the site of attack. He flinched in pain when he made contact with the ground, as his several fractured bones and over-worked muscles throbbed in protest. Panting heavily, Slug walked through the steadily-dissipating smoke to where Thorgas resided.

Bruised, bleeding, and broken, Thorgas was face-down on the ground. He had returned to his normal size and was not having much success in weakly trying to hoist himself back onto his feet. He noticed Slug's presence and looked up at him.

"Slug..."

"Look at this... pitiful state you're in," Slug answered. "Hardly any use any more."

Thorgas suddenly pushed himself up with a great thrust, desperately trying to throw one last blow at Slug. But, he failed to summon enough strength and simply collapsed again.

"I, however, have more than enough power remaining to finish you off," Slug boasted. "Not as if that's saying much; you can barely stand." Slug raised up his right hand and charged ki into it. He poised it to strike the final blow. "Farewell, Father. You were the first worthy opponent I've had in a long time."

Suddenly, a fast-moving boot planted itself square onto the side of his head.

Slug went tumbling headfirst through the air, crashing bodily into a damaged and decaying wall. He quickly picked himself up and whipped around to identify his new attacker.

"You!"

There stood Shio, having positioned herself between him and the fallen Thorgas.

* * *

"This was very, VERY foolish of you," Slug said. "_Again_."

Shio was already well aware of that, and she didn't really need him to reaffirm it for her. After splitting up with Bosa, she had been waiting and watching Slug and Thorgas' battle from a safe distance, keeping herself and her ki hidden while scouting for any small opportunity to help the elder. Unfortunately, she had remained mostly useless, and the battle had raged on. Now, against her better judgment, she had jumped out in a desperate attempt to make a difference.

"Run..." Thorgas suddenly croaked out behind her. "You'll die..."

"Yeah, probably," she retorted. "But I had to do something... I couldn't just watch and let him kill you."

"A noble effort," Slug said. He was slowly and surely walking towards the two of them again. "But useless."

"Well, I won't know until I try!" With that, Shio yelled and unleashed her ki. A faint, waving aura burst into view around her, and she charged forward. She quickly closed the distance between her and Slug, intending to keep the skirmish away from Thorgas. She jumped up and swung a roundhouse kick towards Slug's neck.

To everyone's surprise, it hit its mark.

Slug was unable to put up a defense in time and took the blow full-on. He went spinning around in almost a full circle, barely keeping his footing. He coughed and staggered, putting up a hand to the newly-forming bruise.

"I don't believe it," he stuttered. "Full power has strained me _this_ much?"

"I don't need to believe it," Shio said, landing in front of him again. "Just take advantage!" She thrust a powerful jab to Slug's already-bruised ribs, causing him to flinch and yell in agony. She then jumped up and performed a twirl, landing three kicks in succession to his face. He stumbled backwards a few feet before retreating back further. Clutching his ribs with one hand, he quickly threw a ki blast with the other, and Shio saw it coming. She clasped her hands together, focused her own power into them, and smacked the ki blast away. It arced through the air for some distance before exploding in the street.

"Damn it," Slug said. "This is way more trouble than I need right now." He glanced up at the sky, where the wind was becoming even more volatile, and the swirling, scattered clouds were adding to the twilight-like darkness of the approaching eclipse. "The planet doesn't have much time left."

"That's right," Shio said. "Why don't you take this chance to just leave, before you end up dying along with it?"

Slug glanced back at her and grinned. "Nice bluff." He stood up straight again. "But you're not fooling anyone but yourself. I'm worn-out at the moment, but all it takes is a tiny bit more effort, and you're through. I'm still by far the deadliest thing on this planet."

Shio braced herself, preparing for another tango. This one would no doubt not be so easy...

"We'll be the judge of that!"

All parties were startled by the new voice. They turned to its source, the corner of a fallen tower that was looking over the street. As it turned out, there were five individuals altogether, and they were all familiar faces: the Saiyans from the bar incident last week. All but the very-dead former leader, of course. That position seemed to have been inherited by the one who had spoken, a slightly lanky one with tall hair who stood prominently in front of the others.

"We're here to pick a fight."


	6. Dream Weaver

******DRAGONBALL GT REVISED: CATACLYSM**

By Kaboom Krusader

Chapter Six_ - "Dream Weaver_"

One after another, the ragged-looking newcomers hopped down from the precipice and casually trotted their way over to the rest of the group. The leader with the tall hair came to a halt right next to Shio, his arms folded. He glanced down at Thorgas on the ground, then back up at her.

"We'll take it from here."

She stood there for another moment, puzzled. "What, you're going to try fighting him again? I was there at the bar; I saw what happened last time."

"She's right," Slug piped up, standing a short distance away himself. "If you all run now, one or two of you might actually get away."

"_Excuse_ me," The leader snipped defiantly. "I was _talking_ to the woman." He turned back to her. "Worry about yourself and the wounded geezer here if you don't want to end up as collateral damage."

"We've gotten stronger since then," remarked the tall Saiyan.

"Not to mention," spoke up the fat one, "we're not drunk this time."

"So you're larvae who have turned into full-grown insects," Slug responded. "As if that makes a difference. I can gladly still squash you under my feet if you're so inclined."

"It won't be so easy this time," said the female.

"You've been severely weakened from your fight with Thorgas," the darkly-dressed one observed. "We could tell from your little scrape with the woman just how drastically, and we saw our opportunity."

"Ready, gang?"

The five of them all lined up and prepared themselves, cricking their necks, doing quick stretches, and so on. Shio took the opportunity to gently heave the fainted Thorgas up off the ground and sling him onto her back. She scampered off for some distance and hid the both of them beside a pile of rubble from a landslide. Here, they could be relatively safe but still able to watch the fight.

The lead Saiyan spoke up again.

"Now!"

The entire group suddenly arced themselves and pumped up. The air rippled and the ground splintered around them as they pushed their Ki to their respective maximums. After just a few seconds, they all disappeared from view, jumping off at high speeds in different directions.

Slug reacted, pushing himself up and away as well. But he was too slow and was caught by surprise. The lead Saiyan had shot forward and reappeared right in front of him. He threw a quick upwards hook that knocked him away. Slug ricocheted off the edge of a roof before doing a quick back flip to recover and relaunching himself off its peak. His focus being centered down on his assailant, he failed to witness the darkly-dressed male Saiyan zipping up from his left. He only noticed him when it was too late, and he received a stunning, swinging kick to the face.

He stumbled backwards in pain, having to focus to keep himself in the air. Again distracted, he proved open for attack. The tall, burly Saiyan suddenly appeared behind him. He reached under Slug's arms, then pulled upwards, trapping him in his grip. On another roof across the street, the fat Saiyan was lining himself up as Slug struggled. He then pushed himself off and charged at full speed. He arced his arm back and focused all of his weight and momentum into a thundering punch that connected directly to the pit of Slug's stomach.

Slug had the wind knocked out of him but had no time to reclaim it. The fat Saiyan didn't miss a beat and recoiled his fist back. He threw it again, delivering a powerful uppercut punch to Slug's chin. At the same time, the tall one loosened his grip, so that Slug went sailing even farther up into the sky from the blow.

The pain continued. Waiting for him up above was the female. She charged downwards head-first and met with Slug. She snatched him by the neck between her knees and continued on her downwards plunge. The two of them quickly closed half the distance back down to the street before she twisted herself around and used all four of her appendages to push him downwards.

Slug plummeted towards the ground, still in too much pain to react quickly. He still managed to overcome his dizziness and get a fix on the ground, so he could start to slow himself down. But it was too late. To finish off the group combo, the Saiyan leader had rocketed himself off an overhanging ledge. He intercepted Slug just before his landing and drove both feet into his back. Slug was slammed face-first into the hard ground, which crumbled apart around him.

The Saiyan bounced up, taking off again into the air where he was joined by his compatriots in a circle. They took aim down at their momentarily stunned prey and then let loose with a torrential barrage of Ki blasts. The remnants of buildings all around were eradicated, reduced to ashes and slag by the fiery onslaught.

After a moment, they took pause and returned to ready stances. They knew that something of that level wouldn't have finished him off, and they were right. Steadily, Slug's hazily-seen form picked itself up and floated up out of the dust cloud. He held up a hand to rub his cramped neck, nodding his head from side to side.

"You weren't kidding," he said. "On both counts. You have gotten tougher, _and_ I've lost a good deal of power. Enough that your superior numbers actually mean something." He reached down and tore away the tattered remains of his top cloak, letting the rags float away in the strong wind. "So why don't I re-even those odds?"

He extended his arms out to his sides and clenched his fists. He summoned a deep growl, and he began to glow with a soft, deep red aura. That aura began to extend itself out in four different directions behind him, before separating themselves completely. The four individual masses of energy suddenly took form and morphed into solid, artificially-generated clones of Slug. They, along with the original, all then spoke.

"It's been a-"

"-long time since I've-"

"-actually had a-"

"-practical use for-"

"-this ability."

All five Slugs immediately rushed upward and forward, each zeroing in on a different Saiyan. They were prepared for the clashing, but still, each ended up pushed back and divided from the others. To each their surprise, however, the divided clones proved by no means too much for them to handle. The ensuing one-on-one battles were clearly in the Saiyans' favor. The high-speed barrages of punches and kicks left the Slug clones mostly on the defensive, with the Saiyans easily countering most of the blows.

Beat shifted to the side, allowing a punch to sail right past him. He grabbed the Slug's arm in midair and spun it around, letting go to send it careening down against the ground. He then rocketed through the air towards Kale. He caught her opponent by surprise, slamming a two-legged driving kick into the clone's back. It likewise went flying away, leaving the two of them to a quick exchange of words.

"Kale!" He implored. "Did you notice? These clones are really weak compared to the original!"

"Yeah," she said. "When he splits himself, he must split up his power, too!"

"If we can manage to kill one of them at a time, it could seriously cut down his full power! Let's go!"

The two of them lined up side by side and charged at full speed in the direction of the clone that had just been knocked away. It barely saw them coming, not nearly in time to put up an adequate defense. Beat threw forward a punch which, while it managed to block, served as a diversion while Kale zipped around behind it and landed a spinning kick to the back of its neck. It lurched forward, its broken guard allowing Beat to drive a knee into its gut. He retracted it and spun around to join Kale in landing another kick, straight into its back.

It tumbled headfirst once again into the street, where it was immediately victim to a rapid barrage of Ki blasts from the two Saiyans. The clone came out of it bloodied and charred, "killed" rather easily by the downpour. After a few short seconds, it morphed into a mass of red energy and faded away in the general direction of the original Slug.

The clone Beat had been fighting at first quickly caught up to them, but the pair were more than ready. Kale charged and met it head-on, catching its fist in her own hand. She pulled back and upwards to expose its torso, upon which she planted a firm uppercut punch with her other hand. She let go, allowing it to float upwards where Beat had zipped up and was now diving straight downwards. He arced back his fist and delivered a focused, full-power punch to the clone's upper spine. Its own force against the clone's momentum caused his arm to pierce straight through, killing the clone instantly. Like its counterpart, it, too, faded away.

Elsewhere, the other Saiyans had caught on to the weakness of Slug's strategy. Pinach had realized that with the decreased power also came decreased speed, and so he was nimbly dodging all of his opponent clone's blows while planting small but vital ones of his own. Kob was not using quite so much finesse, choosing rather to just put his mass and superior physical strength into blow after blow against his enemy while tanking and ignoring what few attacks it managed to get off. Barus, fighting what was evidently the real Slug, was using essentially the same strategy, though being a little more careful in the process. Within a few short moments, the two remaining clones had been finished off, leaving the original Slug cornered and even worse off for the wear.

"Damn," he growled. "That didn't work as well as I'd hoped."

"Too bad for you," Beat snidely commented. "We Saiyans can't be reduced to mere numbers."

"I'm forced to agree," Slug replied. "Looks like there's no avoiding it. I'll simply have to exert myself again. But make no mistake," he grinned. "This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me."

He raised his fists, crossing his arms high above his head. The air around him began to pulsate as his Ki built itself up yet again, before he forcefully whipped his arms back down and bellowed. A more powerful aura burst into view as he pushed his power out again. The Saiyans were blown back a little by the wave of Ki and air but managed to more or less resist.

"Warmup's over!" Slug yelled. "Now I finish it!"

He charged forward and landed a swift right hook onto Barus, who stumbled backwards from the blow. He quickly swung his left foot back around to throw a kick at Pinach. However, his whole leg went straight through the Saiyan as he vanished, proving to be an afterimage. Slug was caught off-guard by this and wide-open for an attack from Kob. The hefty Saiyan arced in from above and delivered a powerful elbow to Slug's back, sending him flying downwards where the real Pinach was waiting. He pulled back his fist and drove it straight up into Slug's gut.

But, Slug saw it coming and grabbed the Saiyan's arm with one hand. He raised the other above his head, quickly charging it with Ki as he swung downwards and slammed his palm into the Saiyan's chest. He pushed them both downwards at a bullet-like pace and slammed Pinach back-first into the dirt, stunning him. Yet, he had no time to follow up with anything else, as Beat came charging from his left and swung a kick forward to the side of his head. Slug was sent tumbling away for a few yards before suddenly receiving a Ki blast from above that drove him face-first into the dirt, courtesy of Kale.

He recovered quickly, however, and pushed himself off and straight back up into the air. He charged straight through several more small Ki blasts before head-butting their deliverer. Kale was stunned and left wide open, allowing Slug to reach up and seize her cloak. He forcefully threw her head-first into Barus, who had recovered and been charging in for an attack. Kale slammed into him, and the both of them were sent falling away. Down below, Beat and the recovering Pinach were judging their situation. Watching his teammates struggle against the ferocious Namekian, the former came to a conclusion.

"... We're screwed if we keep going like this, aren't we?"

"I'd say so," Pinach answered, standing himself up. "He's got more fight left in him than we thought."

"But we weren't even supposed to be fighting him in our normal states, anyway!" Beat glanced up and around, examining the skies. "What the hell is going on with this planet? This crazy storm wasn't supposed to be here. We can't see the moons for all this cloud cover!"

"No, we couldn't have seen this coming," Pinach assured him. "Whatever happened to put this planet in danger, like the Sodian woman said, must be the cause."

"Well damn, then. What are we supposed to do? We won't survive another five minutes at this rate, much less take him down."

"..."

Beat noticed his comrade's pensive stare. "You've got a backup plan, don't you?"

"...Yes, I do," he replied. "But it was kind of a last resort."

"I think we've reached 'last resort' territory by now. Do it."

"No need to tell me; I'm already starting," Pinach said, holding out his hand, palm-up. He began to visibly charge energy into it. "It drains a lot out of me, so I had hoped to avoid using it..." After a few seconds, a spherical mass of light took form and began to hover above his palm. Pinach gasped a bit, somewhat strained from generating it.

"What is that?" Beat inquired. "It... it feels weird looking at it."

"Naturally," Pinach said. "This Power Ball is an artificial moon."

"A what?"

Pinach arced his hand backwards, and heaved the Power Ball high up into the sky, purposely aiming along a trajectory that would allow everyone present to see it. It succeeded, and all parties paused for a moment to follow it. Slug guffawed and called down.

"Hahaha, what was that? I think you missed!"

"No," Pinach said, still extending his arm upwards. "I didn't." He suddenly clasped his fingers into a fist.

_"Burst and mix!"_

* * *

His body was no longer solely his own.

The Namekian stood in solemn wonder, looking over his own body. From an outward glance, he appeared the same. But he felt unfamiliar with himself; both more and less complete at the same time. His mind and his spirit were now forever changed. What had _not_ changed, however, were his determination and responsibility. He had no time to dally about and get re-familiarized with himself. Other, more important things required his care.

He first directed his senses far outward, trying to take in as much as he could over the course of the planet. It didn't feel good. The very aura of life encompassing it felt cold and disturbed, and Namekians were beginning to die, like individual candles from an array of thousands being snuffed out at random.

Focusing closer, he witnessed the fracas taking place at the boundaries of the city. Slug's power had been steadily decreasing as he fought, yet it had still remained dominant. But now the Ki of the newcomers who had taken over the fight against him had suddenly increased several fold. One way or another, the battle would be over very soon.

He turned to the Black Star Dragon Balls, which still lay in a group, exhibiting a deceptive sense of peace and tranquility. There was one last modification that they required, and the part of him that was Katatz knew precisely how to perform it. He knelt down and held a single hand over them. It began to glow, and then from within it, a single swirl of energy was emitted and dispelled itself over the Dragon Balls. The spheres glowed harshly for a moment as their newfound properties took effect and then returned to normal just as quickly. The changes were successful and would hopefully help prevent their further misuse.

Last but not least, the Namekian turned around and exited the balcony, crossed through and out of his living chambers, and emerged into the great hall in the upper section of the capitol tower. Lying there, still unconscious, was young Kuji: his next and most vital priority.

The Namekian knelt down and picked the child up, cradling him in his arms. He was relatively unharmed, breathing steadily with a peaceful face. The Namekian stood silently for a moment, pondering what to do. He then turned around to face his room again. Shifting Kuji onto one arm, he raised the other in the direction of the balcony. A few seconds later, the seven Black Star Dragon Balls floated to his side. They hovered around him as he walked away.

* * *

This was bad. This was very, very bad.

Before Slug stood five monkeys. Five very large monkeys. Five _gigantic_ monkeys, even larger than the size Thorgas had attained. Five gigantic monkeys who were very angry.

He cursed himself for being so careless. He knew all about Saiyans and their full moon-induced transformation. But he had never, ever expected them to be able to use it against him here, on Namek, for obvious reasons.

Yet, they had still managed. The odd energy ball the one had generated must have been some sort of artificial moon. They all simply stared at it for a few seconds, and suddenly they were morphing into these monstrous forms, tearing right out of their clothes as they drastically grew in size. Slug had been so caught by surprise that he had simply stood there, stupefied, as they transformed.

But the worst part of it all was that not only their size had changed. The Ki of each one had become some ten times greater along with it. Unless Slug figured something out quickly, he was undoubtedly about to become the focus of that immense, raw power.

Fortunately, they were all still hunched over, having just finished transforming, and seemed to have not quite gained their senses yet, if they were going to do so at all. Slug had heard rumors that all but the most disciplined Saiyans tended to go feral when in this form. If he was lucky, they would simply rampage about and not notice him at all. He began creeping away, taking the opportunity to hopefully make his escape.

He was not so lucky. One by one, they noticed the motion in their peripheral vision. One by one, each massive face slowly turned to focus on him. One by one, each fanged maw curled into a savage snarl.

"Damn it."

He winced as the enormous beasts all simultaneously let loose with thundering roars. He jumped back and up into the air, but he wasn't quick enough. The lead Saiyan in front lunged forward and swung at him, and it connected. Slug was swatted out of the air by a huge palm and sent careening back down into the ground.

He was left stunned and dizzy for a moment. He barely regained his senses in time to detect a sky-filling form in the air directly above him. He pushed himself away just in time before two massive feet crashed down, slamming into the ground where he had just lay. Slug yelped in agony as pain coursed through his entire battered body. The damage he'd sustained so far was really starting to affect him. He had to think of some way to win or escape, and fast.

His thoughts were once again interrupted as another giant-sized Saiyan was suddenly upon him. The female one had retained her normal form's speediness and had rushed forward after him. She reached out and tried to grab at him, but he quickly dived downward and evaded it. He ducked down between her legs and flew up high above her back. He quickly generated and threw a Ki blast, which made contact and exploded against the back of her head. She stumbled forward just one step, before turning around and growling. The blast had done little to no damage and only succeeded in annoying her.

Slug slowed down a bit to charge up a more powerful blast, which was a mistake. He didn't see the next Saiyan coming until it was too late. The fat one heaved himself at Slug and threw a thunderous punch. Slug turned around just in time for it to collide with his face. The impact created a shockwave that kicked up dust and dislodged walls and pavement in the ruins below. He momentarily lost consciousness from the pain as he went hurtling through five different buildings and slammed into the towering cliff face that surrounded the city.

The tallest and strongest Saiyan proceeded to make it worse. He opened his gaping, cave-like, fanged jaws wide. From deep within his gut, a gigantic Ki beam emerged, barreling directly towards Slug. It was all the losing, barely awake Namekian could do to push away from his self-made crater and allow himself to fall down, avoiding direct impact from the blast. It violently tore into the cliff, disintegrating hundreds of tons of rock and clay and blasting away an entire segment. The developing planet-wide storm had been kicking up crashing, stormy waves, which began pouring in through the gap and flooding what remained of the streets inside the city.

* * *

Shio frantically hopped up onto what remained of a wall to avoid the sudden surge of water. Carrying Thorgas on her back, she had been hurriedly dodging and jumping around, trying to keep the both of them safe from the widespread destruction that was being dealt to the area. She had no idea how she'd managed to avoid detection from the gigantic, savage monsters the Saiyans had become.

"I guess we're lucky they're still focused on Slug, right?" She asked. Thorgas didn't respond.

She nudged him gently with her shoulder. "Hey," she said. "Stay with us, now."

Thorgas merely let out a low groan in reply. Shio gently laid him down on his back on the sloped slab of rock as she looked around. She noticed a concave piece of pottery lying amongst some rubble. Quickly jumping down to grab it, she then proceeded to dip it into the neighborhood's newest "river" like a bowl to procure some water. Shio carefully toted it back to Thorgas and lifted up his head.

"You Namekians just drink water, right?" She put the bowl to his lips and prompted him to drink. "Come on, drink up."

After a few seconds, Thorgas succeeded in sipping it all down, and he gasped in relief.

"...Thank you," he groaned, then managed to prop himself up on one elbow and glance over a few decimated blocks, where the Saiyans were stomping around scanning the landscape for their prey.

"What in the world is going on?"

"Those Saiyans from the tavern showed up, looking for payback," Shio explained. "They weren't doing very well at first, but then they transformed."

"Incredible..."

"Well," Shio lightly patted him on the shoulder, "if not for the damage you did first, they'd have been dead before they even got the chance. I'm trying to make sure we're out of the way."

"Don't... worry about me," Thorgas replied. "Just be concerned for your own safety."

"You saved my life once already," she said, carefully heaving him back onto her shoulder. "So in return, I'm making sure you don't take any more abuse."

"... Thank you," he croaked, smiling a bit. "Try to keep your Ki lowered, so that you don't become a target for-"

He was cut short as the city was rocked by another massive explosion. Slug had somehow blown his temporary cover, and the Saiyans were after him again. He had leaped away to avoid a Ki blast from the fat Saiyan, but he put himself in the path of the skinny one in the process. The Saiyan jumped forward and swung a punch straight downwards. It only clipped Slug, sending him tumbling awkwardly onto the street. The street itself fared much worse, cracking apart from a powerful shockwave which up-heaved the entire city block, including the area where Shio had ducked away. She reacted by jumping and hastily bringing herself and Thorgas a bit further away into the air.

"Maybe staying and watching was a mistake," she said. "I'll start heading back towards the tower."

"No," Thorgas said. "I'm sorry to impose on you, but I need to stay and see this through to the end..."

Shio took a glance and noticed his somber, pained expression.

"Okay," she said, descending towards another hiding spot. As she landed, she noticed Slug acting oddly...

* * *

Slug quickly darted off to one side, barely avoiding another gigantic arm hammering down on what remained of the street. He felt water spritz across his face as he moved. The incessant gale-force winds were moving a thick, dark cloud cover and kicking up high waves, which continued pouring into the city through the gap in the cliffs and flooding the low streets. On occasion, the ground itself would quake and spasm as the planet began to destabilize. All in all, the environment itself was starting to prove almost as hazardous as Slug's opponents.

Slug was at the end of his rope. These Saiyans were operating primarily on instinct in these gigantic, primitive forms, yet they still had enough of their wits about them to recognize him as their target, and even worse, cooperate with each other. Plus, with five sets of eyes between them, Slug was finding it practically impossible to escape their sight. He had been constantly dipping and jumping and dodging their attacks, with only partial success, for the last five minutes. But the amount of stress he was putting on his wounds with every movement made it feel ten times longer.

Finally, Slug saw an opening for a short respite. The water flowing through this street had reached a fairly high level, at least two or three meters high. A rough but steady waterfall was arcing down through the gap, behind which Slug could be concealed for at least a few moments.

Slug took a powerful leap over to the area and hovered above the water, making sure all five Saiyans had seen him. As they all closed in on him, he raised one hand in the air. He quickly charged up a ball of Ki, then heaved it at full force into the water. As intended, it exploded with more volume than actual force, kicking up a wide, gushing column of water that encompassed Slug entirely. In the split second that he was obscured from view, Slug zipped back and went under the waterfall. It had worked. He could feel the Saiyans stomping around searching for him and roaring in frustration.

He leaned up against a stone wall, breathing heavily. He knew if he continued trying to fight them like this, he'd die. There was no getting around it. He had to find some way to sneak past them and get to one of the ships which would hopefully still be intact in the capitol tower's hangar. By this point, the sewers were all wrecked, flooded, or both. There would be no making use of them for stealth like he did with Thorgas. If stealth wasn't a viable option, then once again, he would need to resort to excessive force to simply charge through them. He couldn't risk pushing himself up to full-power again, not with his body as worn and torn as it already was. There was, however, one other option.

Matching Thorgas' size earlier would have been mostly futile; his sire was far more practiced with the ability, whereas Slug was still fairly sloppy with it. However, it should be more than effective enough to simply charge through the Saiyans, without taking too much damage, and hopefully hit them hard in return while he was at it.

Slug looked at one of his hands. It was bruised and soiled, caked in a mixture of dirt and blood. He carefully extended both hands out into the waterfall, letting it rinse them. He winced a bit at the sudden impulse of pain from the running water's force, but after a moment he had them clean. He extended one hand again, cupping it to gather some water to drink.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the surface above him, and the waterfall dissipated. The majority of it instead began to fall in smaller, scattered streams all around. Slug looked up to see that something had impacted the outcropping stone and had redirected the water, completely exposing him. Then he noticed the cause. Peeking out from atop a ledge on a ruined building was Shio. Her hand was extended, having just released a small Ki blast.

She noticed him, then shot him a quick smirk and a small salute before ducking back out of view. Slug snarled in frustration and prepared a Ki blast in return. He'd been robbed of his opportunity to kill the pesky woman before, but this time he would-

At that moment, an enormous fist came barreling down onto Slug's head.

The gigantic face that went along with it, with a large scar over a closed, possibly-missing right eye, belonged to the once darkly-dressed Saiyan. He was apparently still the most tactical-minded of the bunch, even as an ape, and had actually taken a high post atop the cliff to scan for Slug. He'd found himself in a perfect position to attack as soon as Slug had been uncovered.

All of a sudden, his fist began to move back upwards, but not of his own volition. Slug emerged from the ground, pushing up against the Saiyan with both hands. Miraculously, he continued to expand upwards, his entire frame steadily growing in size. After only a moment, he stood face-to-grinning-face with the Saiyan. He still held a tight grip on the Saiyan, though his grasp had moved to clenching him by the wrist with both hands.

While the Saiyan was still momentarily confused, Slug acted. With a thunderous yell, he whipped the Saiyan around and bodily threw him against the cliff. The Saiyan crashed into it, displacing considerable amounts of wind as he moved and causing more landslides when he made impact. Slug kept up his momentum and delivered a powerful punch to the Saiyan's torso, pushing him the rest of the way through the cliff and sending him tumbling into the open water outside.

He whipped around to face the remaining four, who had lined up against him along what remained of Kalum's Pass. They were positioned in a half-circle against him, poised to pounce. Slug grinned and yelled at them.

"Come on!"

He charged head-on, the water below splashing against his calves as he ran. The energetic Saiyan leader was, once again, the first to reach him. Slug met him with a strong right hook to the jaw, sending him falling over backwards. The fat one almost tripped over him as he stomped ahead, trying to work with the tall and strong one to flank Slug on either side. Slug stepped back and grabbed the fat one by his hair, yanking on it to whip him forward and make him collide with his co-conspirator. Unfortunately, this left him open for the female one to tackle him from the side at full force.

Slug crashed onto his back. The Saiyan landed on top of him and tried to grab at his head. Slug brought his hands up to grab her by the wrists just in time. Curling up his legs, he positioned them underneath her and pushed off, rolling himself backwards while sending her flying back again towards the gap in the cliff. Slug pushed himself off again and began running down the wrecked street leading to the capitol, the stone quaking and splintering beneath his every step.

However, the one-eyed Saiyan had recovered and re-entered the city. He pushed himself off the cliff and leaped through the air, landing square on Slug's back. Slug stumbled forward, the Saiyan riding him piggy-back. He tried momentarily to push himself forward, but it was useless. The other four Saiyans had surrounded him again and all joined their friend. They dog-piled on him, clawing and grasping and biting, trying to drag him down. They partially succeeded, as Slug was forced down onto his knees. Entire buildings crumbled as he trudged his way forward, every muscle in his body screaming at him in agony as he summoned all his remaining strength to just keep moving forward. Things seemed hopeless.

Then he saw it. The strange ball of energy was still there: the one the darkly-dressed Saiyan had created for them as a substitute moon. It hovered at several stories up in the air, steadily glowing and crackling with energy, giving off the precious radiation that fed the Saiyans' monstrous transformations. It brilliantly marked itself as Slug's new target.

Slug wrestled his right arm loose, trying to shake off the Saiyans who were still maintaining their death-grips on him. He quickly charged some Ki into his hand. Finally gaining a precious second to act, he thrust his enormous hand forward to deliver a wide Ki blast in the ball's direction. It hit its mark, and the Power Ball destabilized. It wavered and warped for a few seconds before bursting apart into a hundred specks of light which quickly faded.

Mercifully, that seemed to have done the trick. The effect was immediate, and the Saiyans reacted. One by one, they fell off of Slug, screeching and shivering as they clutched their heads in pain. Slug began to stand himself up.

Suddenly, the lead Saiyan re-focused his attention on Slug. With one last vengeful burst of energy, he jumped forward at the giant Namekian, arms outstretched to attack. Slug reacted in time to jump back, almost avoiding the Saiyan's attack. Almost. Through sheer determination, the Saiyan stretched his one arm out further, making contact with Slug's face. One gigantic claw-like fingernail scraped itself down over Slug's left eye, drawing blood from his brow.

Slug screamed and pushed the Saiyan away. The Saiyan proceeded to tumble down onto the ground with his friends. Steadily, their massive, hairy forms began to shrink and morph. Within seconds, they had completely reverted to their bare, small, humanoid forms.

The gigantic Namekian looked down upon them, and a pained laugh escaped his throat. This was it! He had won! With their adrenaline and ferocity having died down, the beatings Slug had inflicted upon them earlier were catching up to them, and they lay there dazed and confused. Slug targeted the leader and raised one gargantuan foot to squash him where he lay.

But just then, a fierce spasm of pain shot its way through Slug's entire body, and he lost his footing. He tripped sideways, falling to his knees again. It was over, alright, but Slug wouldn't be able to truly claim victory. He was completely out of energy. His own transformation had been the final straw, and now it was starting to regress itself to normal whether he wanted it to or not.

Slug panicked. The Saiyans would recover in mere seconds. He would be left defenseless, entirely spent of Ki, and an easy kill. He had to do something, and there was only one thing he could think of: put distance between them. As he began steadily shrinking by the second, he feebly pushed himself a few extra lumbering steps away, ending with a final leap. In the end, he landed a few small blocks away. A few more seconds, and he had reverted back to normal.

He shakily pushed himself up to his feet, leaning against a wall. Fortunately, the water wasn't flowing in this direction, so the streets were relatively dry and easy to traverse. After taking one more glance back, Slug began to limp his broken and bleeding form to the east, towards the capitol tower.

* * *

"Damn," Beat complained. "Where did he go?"

He steadily worked himself onto one knee, then stood completely. He glanced around, desperately trying to track Slug's path of escape, but to no avail. After a minute, he gave up, crossed his arms, and thought about it.

"... We won."

Kale wobbled her way over to stand next to him.

"We did? But he got away."

"No, he fled. We inflicted so much damage, hurt him so badly, that he was forced to make a cowardly escape! We did it! We beat him!"

Beat cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled into the distance.

"Flee if you want, Namekian! You're only delaying the inevitable!"

The other three Saiyans took notice and began making their way over to join him.

"I don't care who does it or how! Whether it's one of us, one of our friends or descendants, or even if it's the legendary Super Saiyan himself! I swear you WILL die by a Saiyan's hands!"

He crossed his arms again and stood there for a moment, proud of himself. Then he shivered, rubbing his arms for warmth.

"Damn! It's cold!" He glanced himself over, then at his friends. "Oh, right."

"Yeah, we should try t' do something about clothing as soon as possible," Kob noted.

"Yes," Barus retorted. "YOU in particular, brother."

"So," Pinach inquired. "I honestly hadn't planned this far ahead. What's our next move?"

"Celebration, of course," Beat exclaimed, before grasping Kale by the hand and trying to lead her away. "And since we're already naked..."

She shook free from his grip, then used the very same hand to smack the back of his head. "I think we've got _way_ more pressing concerns than your ego-fueled libido," she said, then pointed to the increasingly violent skies and the unstable ground. "Like how we're getting off this freakish planet, and what's happening to it in the first place."

"... The planet is dying."

All five Saiyans sharply turned to face the source of the voice. Startled at first, they then realized it was the battered Thorgas, carried by the Sodian woman.

"Dying?" Kale mused.

"What's the matter?" Beat snidely said. "Looking for us to put you out of your misery?"

"As tempting as that sounds after seeing you all naked," the Sodian woman dryly responded, "no. We came to-"

"Thank you."

All parties stared at Thorgas, who had just spoken.

"Excuse me?" Beat said.

"Thank you," the old warrior continued. "... For beating him."

"What are you talking about?" Kob said. "I thought he was your son. What was going on?"

"He is, but..." Thorgas lamented. "All this time I never noticed how much he was... being influenced. How corrupted he had become... He was willing to not only let this planet be destroyed, but... would have undoubtedly spoiled the one slim chance we have to save it, had he the opportunity." He looked Beat in the eye. "By defeating him, you may have saved this world. As what may be my last official act as head Warrior... I grant you all pardon for whatever misdeeds you may have committed during your stay on Namek."

Beat pondered this for a moment. "Well damn," he exclaimed. "We just wanted revenge. We never meant to become _heroes_."

"I feel dirty," Kob said.

"We _were_ a bit confused as to why you were fighting him in the first place," Kale said. "Considering our previous run-in with him, we should have figured he was the bad one."

"What did you say about the planet?" Pinach inquired.

"We must... all get to safety," Thorgas said. "I'll explain on the way." He took another cursory glance at the Saiyans as they began to move on. "Here," he said, holding out his hand. "Why don't I do something about this..."

* * *

The Namekian turned a corner and entered the Elders' private hangar. It was a spacious, majestic chamber, shaped like one quarter of a sphere cleanly carved out. Neatly positioned on separate landing pads were three identical space ships, each one belonging to one of the head elders. They were small but comfortable vessels, intended for the elder himself and no more than one or two passengers. They were elliptical in shape, with bulbous glass windows and long, pointed leg-like protrusions acting as landing gear.

The first thing the Namekian saw as he came in through the east entrance was that the wide, curved bay doors overhead were already fully opened, allowing enough space for all three craft to take off. The second thing was that the west entrance, the smaller one leading from the landing pad structure outside, was also opened. The third thing was the scattered trail of blood leading from that entrance all the way over to Thorgas' ship on the northern side of the room, which Slug, whom the Namekian had already sensed from outside, was beginning to board. At that moment, Slug noticed him as well. He was leaning over against one of the ship's legs, trying to keep himself steady, but when he saw the Namekian, he stood and took the best fighting stance he could manage.

The Namekian could tell how weakened Slug had become. He decided to intimidate him by flaring a small portion of his own, newfound Ki. Slug's face suddenly twisted into an expression of terrified shock in response. Panicked, he turned and mumbled something to the ship. A small, circular platform detached from its ventral hull and floated to the floor. Slug swiftly crawled upon it and spoke again, causing the platform to ascend, reattach itself and carry him into the ship. The Namekian silently watched, and after a short moment, the ship began to hum as it started up. Another second, and it had rocketed straight upwards into the sky, completely out of sight in a single moment.

The Namekian turned back towards his entrance and raised a hand. From the hall outside, Kuji, still unconscious, and the seven Black Star Dragon Balls steadily floated in. He took Kuji in his own arms and proceeded over to the southern ship, Katatz's private vessel. He stood underneath it and spoke in the Namekian language.

"Piccolo."

Like with Thorgas' ship just a minute before, the small, circular platform detached and floated down to the floor. The Namekian stood upon it, with the Dragon Balls still orbiting around him, and whispered the word again. The platform rose and carried him up within.

The inside consisted of one single room. A wide, bulbous window was in the forward wall, with a single large chair erected facing it and a single control panel fixated between them. The Namekian walked around to the front of the seat and gently placed Kuji into it.

He walked to a door at the rear wall of the ship and pressed a small switch beside it. It opened, revealing a moderate storage closet. From within it, he procured and opened a small, dome-shaped storage container. One by one, the Black Star Dragon Balls placed themselves inside it, and the Namekian refastened the lid. He held up his right index finger, and the tip began to glow. Placing it on the top of the container, he began to write, burning Namekian characters directly into its surface.

_Learn from these, but never use them._

He stood up and walked over to the controls. Placing one hand on them and leaning down, he spoke again in Namekian into the voice sensor.

" Palandag, Terra kuppa goroppungo."

A small screen on the panel flashed in several colors, then displayed a message of, "Acknowledged." The ship's systems simultaneously came to life with a low, steady hum. But, as commanded, it did not take flight yet, delaying itself until the word was given.

The Namekian turned and started to walk back to the circular platform. But then he stopped, once again noticing Kuji's peaceful, sleeping form on the chair. The accumulated concern and affection for the young one surged strongly through both halves of Bosa's and Katatz's joined mind, and he instead proceeded back to the rear of the ship. Kneeling down to the container once again, he wrote one more small message below the prior one.

_We will come for you. Wait for us._

With this, he finally stood upon the platform. A low, somber murmur of "piccolo," and it lowered him back down to the hangar floor, letting him glimpse Kuji one last time as it descended. Stepping off and repeating the word caused it to re-ascend, locking itself in place and sealing off the ship.

The Namekian walked a few steps away for safety, keeping his back to the ship.

"Pulalu."

At his order, it enacted the delayed command given before and took off. With a quick roar of its propulsion systems, it rocketed straight up into the sky and, within seconds, could no longer be seen or heard.

"Bosa."

The Namekian turned to the east entrance again, through which a mostly-unfamiliar group of individuals had just entered. The one face which had just spoken was undoubtedly that of his compatriot, Thorgas, though he was so bruised and battered all over that it took a moment to recognize him. Bosa's vast diplomatic knowledge allowed him to recognize that the woman supporting the injured elder was of Sodian descent, and the five black-haired, monkey-tailed individuals were Saiyans, though for some reason they were dressed in casual Namekian garb.

"Thorgas," the Namekian greeted him, eliciting a small smile. "You look even worse than your Ki feels."

"Heheh-_nnngh_," Thorgas chuckled, but stopped as his broken ribs protested. He then glanced upwards. "I knew Slug planned to escape in my ship, but..." He looked back down at 'Bosa.' "You sent Kuji away?"

"Yes," the Namekian replied. "Along with the Black Star Dragon Balls, for safekeeping."

"Where?"

"A small, peaceful planet I know of, outside the Northern borders of our galaxy." He glanced upwards again. "The natives call it 'Earth.' He'll be safe there."

"Why the Dragon Balls, too?"

"Without Katatz, he can use them to learn."

"Ah, yes, I sensed Katatz's life fade away," Thorgas somberly noted. "Where is he now?"

The Namekian stood silently.

"Bosa?"

He turned to face Thorgas. The look in his eyes said it all.

"You mean..." Thorgas put two and two together. "You've merged?"

"Merged?" The leader of the Saiyans with the tall hair spoke up. "What are you talking about?"

"It's an ancient, innate ability of the people," remarked another Saiyan, the lean one with hair covering half of his face. "One member can essentially absorb the other, and his power and knowledge along with it. It's usually a last resort."

"Indeed," the Namekian said. "Such was the case with Katatz."

"You people," the lead Saiyan continued, "just get weirder and weirder."

"I see," Thorgas said. He quietly pondered this for a moment, before speaking again. "Then allow me to merge with you as well."

"What?" The Sodian woman exclaimed.

"Thorgas," the Namekian implored him. "Please, do not be rash. It was necessary to give any hope for the planet, but also the only way to save his life."

"... And I'm no different," Thorgas responded. "Look at me. The damage dealt to me is far worse than what you can see on the surface. I can not even walk anymore. A multitude of my bones are broken. My innards have been damaged beyond repair. This catastrophe has all but wiped us out, and," he looked up and chuckled, "let's face it, neither part of you was ever a very good healer."

"Thorgas..."

"This is the only way to save _my_ life, in a way. I will become a part of you, rather than suffering a meaningless death. Besides," he noted. "With my combat ability, you will become an elder of all three clans combined. Able to care for Namek universally, far better than we could do separately. This, too, is for the good of Namek as a whole."

"... Very well, then," the Namekian sighed. "I would be honored."

Thorgas nudged the Sodian woman, and she understood what he meant. Carefully, she helped him prop himself up to stand on his own, then backed away. Obviously pained, but determined, Thorgas proudly stood and faced his friend and fellow elder with a smile.

"Don't let us down."

"Of course not."

The Namekian held out one hand and gently placed his palm on Thorgas' chest. He focused himself, and suddenly a bright white light surrounded both Namekians. A rush of wind burst forth around them as their Ki flared and mixed together. In a flash, Thorgas simply disappeared, and the Namekian's own Ki subsided. He was left standing there alone, looking himself over, as his small and flabbergasted audience gazed at him.

"I get the feeling," mused the female Saiyan, "that we just witnessed something amazing."

The Sodian woman spoke. "Bosa?"

"I'm not entirely Bosa, or Katatz, or Thorgas," the sole remaining Namekian corrected her. "But all in one. I'm not quite sure _what_ to call myself now."

"You're all three – when'd there become three, anyway? – combined into one," the fat Saiyan scratched his head. "What would that make you, the... Great Elder?"

The Namekian smiled. "I suppose that will do for now."

At that moment, a sudden and severe quake, on a scale the city hadn't encountered before, shook the whole tower. The entire ground below them felt like it was sliding and shifting, and the screech of twisting metal echoed through the hangar.

"Whoa!"

"The planet is beginning to break apart," the Namekian exclaimed. "Quickly, follow me."

He led them all over to the last remaining spaceship on the middle platform, the one that once belonged to Bosa. A quick recitation of the same entrance word, and the round platform lowered and revealed the entrance. Getting the idea, the Saiyans began to clamber their way up inside, one at a time. Shio was next, but the Namekian called her aside.

"Miss Shio," he said. "Where do you think is best to go?

She pondered for a moment. "Probably planet Tozak," she decided. "It's kind of close by, and it has more than enough traffic and commerce. We can all head wherever we need from there."

"Very well. Then, let me tell you what you need to know to get there. You must -"

"Wait!" She interrupted. "What about you?"

"You already know I choose to stay behind," he explained. "There are still measures I can take towards saving the planet."

"But what if it doesn't work?" She protested. "You'll be stranded."

"I know," he said, laying one hand on her shoulder and smiling warmly. "If that is my end, then that's all there is to it. You, of all people, my dear, should realize the virtue of making sacrifices for the greater good."

Shio sighed, defeated. "Alright, then; I understand."

* * *

"Aaargh, come on already! There's gotta be _something!_"

Kob was frantically and anxiously digging through the ship's back closet. Kale noticed and poked her head in as well.

"What are you looking for?"

"Food, of course!" He snapped. "We hibernated for a week, then went right into fighting. I'm starving!"

"Namekians don't even need to eat food," Pinach commented, leaning against the side wall. "They get all the nutrition they need from water. This is one of the elder's private ships, so I doubt he had any need to keep much in store fo-"

"Found it!"

Kob produced a small box of what were apparently emergency rations intended for non-Namekian passengers. They were some sort of dry, plain, crunchy, grain-based sticks, about a foot long each. Kob practically tore the box apart, procured one, and hastily bit into it.

"It's kinda sweet," he commented, finishing it off within seconds. He then grabbed two more out of the box and began chomping away on them both at the same time.

At that moment, the circular boarding platform arose back to its place on the floor, carrying the Sodian woman with it. She looked everyone over as she briskly moved to the front of the ship, where Pinach had taken the seat and was examining the controls. He noticed her and spoke.

"I'm not sure how to work this. There's a display screen, but these nubs don't seem to be buttons."

"They're voice sensors," she calmly said, "and you have to give the commands in Namekian." She took another quick glance back at the group. "Is everyone aboard?"

"Since it seems the Namekian elder won't be boarding," Pinach said, "then yes."

"Okay." She turned back and leaned down to the controls. "Um... Tozak, kuppa... goroppungo."

The display blinked to life and displayed a short message in Namekian script. Everyone aboard jumped a bit in surprise as the ship suddenly revved itself up around them. They quickly figured out what was happening, and all did their best to grab onto something and brace themselves. Just a second later, the ship lifted off and was in the upper atmosphere before they knew it. Shio took a glance out the front window.

"Oh my god."

Because of the closed-in nature of Makigai, none of them had truly been able to witness the scale of the damage. But from this vantage point, it was dismally clear. The entire planet was literally coming apart.

Most of it was covered by unnaturally chaotic storms, blowing across the hemispheres at unfathomable speed, barraging the land and seas with lightning. What amount of the actual surface was visible appeared even deadlier. Continent-sized fissures were stretching across the entire globe, criss-crossing and dividing the surface into dozens of sections, glowing a deep red from the magma within them seeking to work its way out from the depths. The oceans were beginning to all but disappear as they drained away. Within less than a minute, however, the planet was entirely out of sight due to the ship's unbelievable speed.

* * *

They were all dead now.

The one-third of the Namekian that was Katatz knew everything needed to access his own storage chambers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Slug had already saved him the trouble by breaking in and leaving it open earlier. The Namekian entered the large closet and emerged carrying an enormous, heavy bag. He opened it and confirmed the contents: seven identical stone spheres, each about a foot in diameter.

Every last one of them, all snuffed out.

The Namekian re-entered the closet and again emerged, this time carrying a different item once stored on a shelf inside. It was a small, glass, dome-shaped case. Within it was fastened a clay sculpture of a mysterious, otherworldly-looking creature.

Dead in one of the worst ways possible. Victims of their own planet's death throes.

The Namekian was nearly thrown off his feet as the ground shifted about again. Except, this time, it didn't simply rattle in place. The entire floor was beginning to slope and lean. The whole tower was collapsing.

No hope for them.

The Namekian moved quickly. Holding tightly to the bag and model, he darted up the slope and out onto the balcony, taking a quick notice of the spot where he had merged with Katatz. He retained two different memories of the same scene, from two different angles and two different sets of eyes and ears. With no time left to reminisce, he left it behind as he jumped up to place one foot on the balcony's railing, then pushed himself off and up into the air.

All life on the planet was fading. What once illuminated his sixth sense like a bright glare reflected over an entire sea was now like the light of a moon barely penetrating through the clouds. Not just the sentient Namekian people, but the plant and animal life were now fading away as well.

Steadily soaring through the air, the Namekian glanced down to witness the city's fate. A gigantic, seemingly bottomless fissure had opened up from across the horizon and cleanly bisected Makigai. The famous Kalum's Pass was gone. The Ajissa gardens had been swallowed up, and the majestic tower they surrounded was visibly tipping over. With a great crash, it collapsed over on itself, disappearing into the hungry, magma-filled depths that awaited it. The gap continued to widen and spread itself, and plumes of lava flowed over and consumed what remained of the city.

The entire region was being wracked by the violent spasms of the planet. Entire islands were washed away by the rushing water, mountains were caving in on themselves, and what vegetation was left was either burning or drowning. The Namekian had to find a safer area to finish things, and quickly.

As fast as his Ki could carry him, the Namekian rocketed to the northeast. His incredible new speed granted by Thorgas allowed him to reach his destination in mere minutes. Luckily, it was still here: the Karakol Mountain range. Several of the smaller heights had succumbed to the destruction and collapsed, but the highest peak, Mount Karakol itself, was still standing tall and proud. The Namekian hurled himself as quickly as possible towards its summit. He landed, his feet touching down on what would possibly be the last surviving patch of Namekian grass if this effort failed.

Placing both the satchel and the glass-encased model on the ground, he dealt with the latter first. He stood and calmly faced it, then closed his eyes and raised his hands, trying his best to quiet himself and concentrate despite the destruction raging all around him.

Less than a minute later, his eyes opened wide with realization. The link was made; now, to cement it. He raised one finger, and an ethereal energy began to charge within it. Pointing at the model, he released it and made the connection. The figure glowed and pulsated as the Namekian's life force became linked to it. A few short seconds after, it morphed into a dazzling beam of pure energy which shattered the glass case as it emerged and arced high out of sight into the sky.

Yet a few seconds later, it returned, barreling straight back downwards to where it had come from. Almost exactly where, at least. It streamed down into the large bag, burning it away to cinders and charring the ground as it gave life to the Dragon Balls within. The new Dragon Balls, larger than any others on the planet and teeming with power, glowed and hummed in rhythm as they awaited usage.

The usage would have to be immediate, as now the planet was entering its final seconds. The screams of the land and water around the mountains were rendered inaudible as they were replaced with the roaring of molten rock. The outer shell of Namek literally broke apart and began to rise into the sky. While the very ground below the Namekian's feet began to shake and move beneath him, he bellowed the words that would summon the planet's only possible savior.

"_Takkarapto popporunga pupiritto paro!_"

At this command, the Dragon Balls lit up like heavenly beacons, and an expansive field of energy burst into view around them. The already dark and chaotic sky became pitch-black as a great pillar of light took form and coiled its way up into the air. It expanded as it touched the upper limits of the clouds and took physical form.

It was a majestic, gigantic dragon, whose appearance reflected its astronomical power. Unlike most other dragons, its tail traveled up and was capped with a distinctly humanoid frame. From its broad shoulders extended two gigantic arms ending in three-fingered, clawed hands. Its face, while distinctly reptilian, resembled in part the features of its creator, as it reflected the hopes, desires, and very future of the Namekian people.

In Namekian, its name was Porunga, "The God of Dreams."

As entire mountains burst apart and were consumed all across the horizon, as the planet screamed its last violent breath, as all that was Namek crumbled apart beneath it in immense fractions, Porunga spoke in a roar of such volume that it overpowered all the chaotic noise.

"REFLECT ON YOUR DESIRES, AND I WILL GRANT YOU ANY WISH."

As the very mountain upon which he stood splintered apart, the Namekian bellowed his reply at the top of his lungs.

"Save Namek!"

* * *

On planet Namek's second moon, a single Zooga Bird perched itself upon a building and watched the sky. Like most of his species, he was a particularly intelligent breed of animal. The nice, green, big people and the other big people often trained others like him for a large variety of tasks. He, himself, was quite proud of his skills in flying around and finding lost things from the air and bringing them to places.

The person who taught him, however, was currently away for something. However, he did this on a regular basis, so the Zooga Bird wasn't too concerned. He had been left a good amount of feed and didn't have much to do at this time of year anyway but eat, sleep, hide things, wait, and then go find the things he'd hidden. He was a smart Zooga Bird, so he knew his person would come back soon.

However, as clever a Zooga Bird as he was, he was having a bit of a hard time making sense of what he was seeing. The big green circle in the sky, which was always there during the day and night, was acting oddly. It had become very dark and scary-looking. It seemed to shake and sway in its spot in the sky for a while, then big, scary, red lines criss-crossed all over it. At one point, it looked like it was about to fall apart into lots of pieces that the Zooga Bird would probably have to go find when his person came back.

But suddenly, to his great surprise, it did something different again. As it was falling apart, the whole big circle became much darker than before for just a few seconds. Then, right before the Zooga Bird's five eyes, it glowed really, really bright for a moment, then just put itself back to normal.

The Zooga Bird blinked his eyes in random patterns for a few seconds, trying to figure out what just happened. But after a while, he dismissed it, choosing instead to take flight and go find that shiny rock he'd hidden in the forest earlier that day.

* * *

The Namekian roused himself from his impromptu sleep. He groggily forced open his eyes and slowly began to absorb his surroundings. For a time, the sharp difference from what he last remembered caused him to wonder if he had died and crossed over to the next world. But after another moment, he realized such was not the case. He could feel the ticklish but relaxing texture of the grass beneath him, and the warm glow of the suns upon his back and the side of his face. He could hear the gently blowing wind and what sounded like the rushing of waves. As he breathed deeply, he could taste the cool mountain air and a hint of the ocean's saltiness. As his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, he could see a few light, fluffy clouds and the faint silhouette of one of two great moons, floating in a deep green sky.

He set his hands on the ground and heaved his generously-sized frame up to sit. He was a bit surprised at the landscape he witnessed before him. He sat upon a narrow, tall plateau, but what lay below him was drastically different from before. What was once a powerful mountain range all the way to the horizon was now a sea. Across it were a scattered handful of small, rocky islands. A few of them bore small patches of grass, and when he squinted he thought he could spot a few tiny trees.

He looked down on the ground before him, upon which sat Porunga's Dragon Balls. The ONLY Dragon Balls, which had now turned back to stone after the successful granting of his wish. It appeared that in "saving" Namek, Porunga had merely rushed to reverse its impending destruction, without actually restoring it to its prior state. It was likely that most all of the planet now resembled what the Namekian witnessed.

He breathed a deep sigh, then closed his eyes and focused his spirit in order to scan for any remaining life. To his relief, he could sense a small, but much greater amount of animal life than he had expected. A good handful of mammalian, reptilian, avian, and sea-dwelling creatures had managed to survive the chaos and were well-dispersed across the planet. But to his dismay, there remained no trace of the Namekian people.

The Namekian somberly reflected on this. To his knowledge, there were only three surviving Namekians anywhere. Kuji, the son of Katatz, had been safely sent off to Earth, where he would hopefully thrive and remain safe. Of course, Slug had escaped as well, and it was possible that, like him, a random, scattered few others were traveling among the stars. However, it was unlikely they or the prodigal warrior son would ever return. For the foreseeable future, the Namekian remained the last survivor on the entire planet.

He stood up, contemplating his prospects, though in reality there was only one: to rebuild. He had these Dragon Balls, of course. But he also had the combined skills, knowledge, experience, and wisdom of three outstanding elders within himself. He would focus all of his abilities to restore planet Namek to its former glory. He would birth a multitude of new sons to assist him and carry on the Namekian culture and legacy. He would carry out a fresh start.

He would go down in history as the single elder who survived to carry on the will of Namek into the coming centuries: the Great Elder.

* * *

For a few moments longer, nobody spoke. Nary a sound reverberated through the room save for Kob's ravenous munching, which in itself ended after another minute or so.

"Hmm," Kob said, peering into the box in search of leftover crumbs. "All gone."

"What?" Kale stomped over and bonked him on the head. "It's gonna take at least a couple days to get to Tozak! What are the rest of us supposed to eat?"

Pinach turned his head and spoke into the back. "If I'd anticipated us actually surviving against Slug, I'd probably have made sure to save the injectors."

"Oh, no, not a chance in Hell," Beat declared. "I don't care how much of a healing boost it gave us; putting myself into a coma once in my life is more than enough. I'd rather starve." He glanced at Kob. "But if we end up resorting to cannibalism, I vote we eat Kob first."

"Yeah," Kale concurred, pinching some of the jiggling flesh on his arm. "He's got the most meat on him out of all of us."

"Hey, knock it off!" Kob protested, then looked to his brother for support. "You'll have to get through Barus first, right, bro?"

The gentle giant glared at him. "You didn't leave _me_ any rations either."

"..."

The half-serious riffing between the Saiyans continued for a good amount longer, supplemented by a healthy dose of slapping a certain belly and watching the ripples. Shio, however, did not participate in any of the juvenile revelry. She simply remained standing by the front window, intently staring off into the depths of space. Pinach, still seated and observing as well, noticed the expression of pained concern on her face.

"You're worried about the elder, aren't you?"

She glanced at him and nodded. "Yes."

"Perhaps you shouldn't be," he consoled her. "He seems far more capable than anyone would expect."

"Yeah, if there's one thing we've learned up-close and personal about Namekians," Beat said, walking over and butting in to the conversation, "it's that they're _tough_." He slapped Shio on the shoulder, then walked over to the wall and sat down against it. "He'll survive. Don't worry about him. Just be grateful to him that you've escaped safely and keep living your life."

"Wow, Beat," Kale said, sitting down next to and leaning on him. "That was uncharacteristically deep of you. I'm not sure what to think."

"Oh, I can get 'deep,' alright."

"That's more like it," she sighed, then rested her head and closed her eyes.

Another moment of silence passed, after which Beat turned to address Shio again.

"By the way, who are you?"


End file.
